


She's Got The Devil's Eyes

by CrimeSolvingDevil (LouBigSpoon)



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Action, Angel Wings, Angels, Angst, BAMF Chloe Decker, BAMF Lucifer, BAMF everyone, Biblical Reinterpretation, But not that much, Case Fic, Chloe Decker is a baby, Dan Espinoza Finds Out, Demons, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Douchifer, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Heaven, Hell, How Do I Tag, Hurt Chloe Decker, I answer comments y’all keep ‘em coming, I didn’t think it would be angsty but it kind is was so sorry, I hope BAMF means Big Ass Mother Fucker because if it doesn’t I’ll be mortified, I love you all so damn much, Identity Reveal, Insecure Lucifer, I’m a hoe for stepdad!Lucifer, I’m trying to get better at that I promise, LUCIFER AND TRIXIE ARE IT FOR MY HEART, Lucifer as a step-father, Lucifer is in hell, Lucifer is in hell but just for a couple of chapters, Mild Case Fic, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Smut, Miracles, Mutual Pining, Now I can finally say it, Now with the least serious tags, Pining, Post-Devil Face Reveal to Chloe Decker, Post-Season/Series 04, Pregnancy, Spoilers, Spoilers for all seasons, Step-Devil, Supernatural Elements, There’s smut but only in the first chapter bc I can’t work smut into a plot, Unplanned Pregnancy, Wingfic, Wings, Wordcount: Over 100.000, Wordcount: Over 200.000, a little bit of, no seriously, pregnancy reveal, this is pure Deckerstar centered fluff/angst/domesticity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:21:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 33
Words: 210,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22741666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LouBigSpoon/pseuds/CrimeSolvingDevil
Summary: What meaning would life have if one's world was destroyed? Well, Lucifer's world was no longer Earth, it was no longer the free will, the chicks and the booze it offered, no. His world was the blonde, stubborn, tenacious and caring woman who would wake up to an empty bed and a broken heart.Lucifer and Chloe have to say their goodbyes right before Lucifer goes back to Hell. All the beautiful time they spent together, all the memories of their partnership do nothing but fill their minds up and cloud their judgment. And Lucifer does leave because it's what he has to do, the prophecy must not be fulfiled. However, no one expects the little miracle that's left behind on earth.Or the AU, post-season 4 nobody asked for where Lucifer leaves and Chloe has to glue her broken pieces back together without her partner, only to find later on that the devil left her something for her to remember him.
Relationships: Chloe Decker & Lucifer Morningstar, Chloe Decker/Lucifer Morningstar, Eve/Mazikeen (Lucifer TV), Trixie Espinoza & Lucifer Moningstar
Comments: 792
Kudos: 1503





	1. Chapter I

**Author's Note:**

> Hello you beautiful people! 
> 
> So, essentially, this is something that's been on my mind for a while now, so I decided that I would write it down while we wait for season 5. 
> 
> Just to clear things up, this work starts with the end scene of Lucifer Season 4 but with a twist so it'd fit the narrative. 
> 
> I'm sorry but I don't know how the update schedule will be. I'm starting university in two weeks from now and things will get hectic. Besides, I'm writing another fanfic for another fandom and that takes some time as well. 
> 
> I hope you like where this is headed and if so, leave kudos and comments. They really motivate me to keep writing. 
> 
> All the love, Rena.
> 
> P.S. the title of this fic DOES NOT stand for the gender of the baby, I repeat, it DOES NOT mean it's a girl. I chose it because of how Lucifer is when around Chloe and how devoted he is to her. The "she" stands for Chloe.

"So, Charlie is back with Linda and Amenadiel," As Chloe walked inside the penthouse, she couldn't help but think that things felt eerie. She had a hard time finding Lucifer, only to see his back as he stood over his balcony, seemingly thinking about everything that had gone on that day. "So... you know... it's over," She pauses, hoping the devil will respond with some sarcastic comment pulled from underneath his sleeve and everything will go back to normal. She's not a celestial being, but she doesn't have to be one to realize that what she was hoping would never happen. "Isn't it? Is it over?"

"I'd say yes, detective, but I'd be lying," She could see how his back looked tense, she could hear it in his voice and yet, she couldn't give that eerie feeling a name. She didn't like things she couldn't explain. "And we both know I don't do that," the devil turned around and looked at his beloved detective, the only woman since the beginning of time that had made him, the devil, bleed. The only woman who had managed to break his heart and glue it back together. "Tonight we won but we just plugged a hole into a very flimsy boat, now the demons know I have no intention of returning, they... they'll continue to defy me. It's only a matter of time before they come back to earth," it was audible in his voice, the fear. He had never been defied before, no one had ever dared to stand in front of him and threaten him. Well, he never had something he was afraid to lose before. If he was sure of one thing was the way that the demons could get to him, she was standing right there in front of him. He had promised himself that no harm would ever come to her and his word was his bond. "Who knows where next? Or maybe they'll just come back for Charlie, or..." He paused, finding it difficult to voice his feelings. "Or maybe you,"

"I see," Chloe wanted to say she couldn't see where the conversation was going, but she could, and that simple fact terrified her. "So what... what are you saying?"

"I have to go back," her world fell before her feet.

"So for how long?" She attempted to sound casual, to not let Lucifer know how she was feeling about it, but she was unable to. She was just transparent, an open book, and the devil was able to read her with ease. "Like a couple... a couple of weeks? Or maybe a month? Or—"

"—You were right about the prophecy, we did get it wrong. It is about hell coming to earth and we may have stopped it now, but for how long?" Chloe's breath hitched at that and she shook her head, not wanting to believe what she was hearing or rather, what she would hear. "I need to keep them contained, they _must_ have a king," She knew what she would hear, she could see the yet unspoken words between them like a halo, she knew. It was in that moment when she knew and all that was left for her was to beg, beg that the enigmatic, sarcastic and eccentric devil she had grown fond of wouldn't leave.

"No, no, no," she actually laughed there, unable to believe that this was happening to her, to them. It was unfair that every time she was close to saying that they were standing on firm, solid ground regarding their feelings something like this would happen. It was unfair that something had to come and tear them apart. "No, see, this is... this is what I meant, Lucifer, when I said you can't leave me," she knew she would break apart, it was only a matter of time. She could only hope it wouldn't be too hard to pick up her own pieces and build herself back up again. "Listen, I'm so sorry that... how I reacted when I first saw your face, it was stupid and... please," Lucifer's eyes were on her and she couldn't help but feel small under his gaze, to feel insignificant. Right there the three little words that threatened to leave her mouth back at The Mayan formed again in her mouth. She had nothing left to lose, right? "I... I love you. I love you, please, don't leave," The devil smiled bittersweetly at her. 

"You see, we were wrong about something else in the prophecy," She had seen him step closer, she had felt the warmth of his body as he approached her but moreover, she had seen the look in his eyes, begging for forgiveness. "My first love was never Eve," His right hand rose to touch her cheek; the callous hands of the devil leaving the sweetest and softest caress on her wet skin. She couldn't help herself, she had to cry, she was seeing the love of her life as he left her. "It was you, Chloe. It always has been,"

And right there, as they stood on Lucifer's balcony, they shared their third and seemingly last kiss. Their lips connected and a weak and useless prayer was sent, asking for that kiss not to be their last, asking for them to have another chance. Chloe's hands went straight up for the back of Lucifer's head as she secretly asked God to let them stay like that, for them to never have to leave each other again. Lucifer's hands did the same gesture, grabbing his loved one by the jaw as if she were as fragile as a flower, savoring the kiss and remembering every curve and feel of her lips, damning his father, once again, for tearing them apart. 

As Chloe lets herself be drowned in the feeling of kissing her love for the last time, her hands leave his neck and wander down to the buttons of his white dressing shirt, silently asking for permission. At that moment she decided that if Lucifer was to leave her, they had to at least say a proper goodbye. She wanted him to stay but if he had to leave she wanted them both to remember how being with each other felt, how the most intimate of acts felt if it was between them. She wanted to let their bodies to say their goodbyes, too. 

"What?" Lucifer mumbled as he broke the chaste kiss apart, letting his forehead rest against Chloe's. "What are you doing?" He asked, looking straight into her teary blue eyes, trying to find anything other than pure sadness in them but failing spectacularly. 

"I..." She didn't know what to say, she didn't know how to express what she wanted. "I... Let me," she said slowly, putting her hands to work and unbuttoning the top button of Lucifer's shirt. She was being cautious, studying all of the devil's expressions as she worked her way down to the second one. "Let us... Let me say goodbye,"

"Chloe," he pulled his forehead away from hers, looking directly into her eyes as she talked through them, begging him to let them have that moment. She lowered her hands even further, undoing the third and fourth buttons of his shirt.

"Please," She was close to begging, trying to hold on to whatever memory of him she had left and he wasn't even gone yet. She really didn't want to know what living without him felt like. "Please," she whispered against his mouth, praying that Lucifer wouldn't say no. 

"Okay," he mumbled, letting his lips connect with hers once again. He didn't want to let her go, he wanted to have her beside him for the rest of eternity. He loved her. "Okay," he mumbled again; his voice broken against the lips of his beloved. Thinking about the grand scheme of things, her time on earth was just a mere speck of eternity, a minuscule part. They only had so much time left together before she went to heaven and they both knew that heaven was a place Lucifer would never get to go back to again. He owed this to her, to _them_ , even if the sole idea of making love to her felt like trespassing, like disturbing the perfect relationship they'd had over the years. 

His hands fell to her waist, grabbing onto her timidly. It was the first time since the beginning of the universe that Lucifer felt unsure of his touch regarding a woman, the first time he approached sex from a different angle, with someone who actually loved him and he loved back. He really didn't want to say goodbye. He wanted to hold her against his chest for the rest of eternity, to smell the fragrance of her perfume every day and never grow tired of it, to get to know every single little detail and quirk that made Chloe who she was and learn them again if ever forgot one. He wanted her to be with him, he didn't want to leave, but he knew he had to. At that moment, when he had to face the fact that he'd most likely not get to do all those things he wanted, a couple of tears started rolling down his cheeks, getting lost in the kiss.

"I love you," Chloe mumbled with her mouth against the devil's, tasting the saltiness of both their tears mixed. Her hands undid the remaining buttons of his dressing shirt before locating themselves on Lucifer's shoulders, answering to their kiss with the slightest hint of shyness. She loved him so much and she had been so dumb. Right at that moment, with his lips against hers and their hearts on their sleeves, she was wondering why. It wasn't fair, she wanted to have more time, but at the same time, she would have had it if only she hadn't been so stubborn. If only she had realized that she loved him sooner.

Lucifer was crying and he didn't care. That was how much he cared about Chloe. He was crying because he loved her and he didn't want to lose her, because he didn't want to go back and because he didn't want their first time to be their last. If only they could just slow time.

Neither of them knows when it happened, or how, but in one moment they were kissing and crying on the balcony and the next one Chloe had wrapped her legs around Lucifer's narrow waist, letting him carry her inside and into the bed. She got rid of his shirt and jacket by pulling them off his shoulders, letting them fall without a second thought and finally letting her hands wander around his warm and toned body. She wouldn't say it but she had expected Lucifer to make a comment about her letting his jacket and shirt fall to the floor when they were Prada and expensive. He didn't do it and in a way, it made Chloe miss him already.

He placed her on his bed with all the care in the world, lowering her slowly and leading her to lay back as he hovered over her. He broke their kiss only once, stopping to admire the beauty of his wonderful miracle, the woman who had carved her way into his heart and would never leave. He could only wonder how it was possible that so much love could fit in his heart, how such a dark place he constantly forgot he had was now occupied by the blonde beauty before him. She had changed him but she hadn't made him weaker, no, she had made his heartbeat have a purpose for the first time in eternity, and that could only make him stronger.

His hands wandered down the button line of her dark shirt, undoing button after button and drowning himself in the beautiful masterpiece he had before him.

"So beautiful..." He mumbled, going back to kissing her as soon as the smallest whine came out of her mouth. Their lips connected and for the first time ever they let it grow, they let the kiss evolve into the moment.

Lucifer's tongue tentatively circled at the opening of her mouth, making her lips finally open and letting them deepen the kiss. It was a sad wrestle between tounges, lazy even, taking it slowly so the moment wouldn't end. Chloe's hands made their way to Lucifer's muscular back, touching everywhere and trying to memorize the feeling of his skin against hers, trying to map out all of the little moles and the bumps where his wings were hidden. Lucifer, on the other hand, let his hands loose on Chloe's torso, going underneath the fabric of her shirt and trying to get it off of her. She had to lift herself up slightly at one moment fo him to toss her shirt aside and as she did so, she also undid the clip of her bra, letting it set loosely over her breasts.

She moved underneath the devil, trying to seat herself up with her back against Lucifer's backrest. When she did so she let her eager hands trail off through the devil's strong pecs and carved abs, downs south towards the buckle of his belt, undoing it in one motion. Once again, she was expecting the typical Lucifer comment, maybe noting how eager she was, or how fast she had undone it but no, it was pure silence on the devil's side as he was concentrated on kissing her. He wanted to remember each and every nook of her mouth so when they were away he would have the memory.

He trailed off, leaving a little path of kisses down Chloe's jaw, all the way through her neck and to her left collarbone. She couldn't stop crying, maybe because she would miss Lucifer like crazy or maybe because he was biting her skin, probably leaving marks all over her neck and left shoulder, a reminder for tomorrow.

"I'll miss you so much," she mumbled, letting her hands go up to Lucifer's head and tangling on his black hair, playing and tugging at it as the devil marked her. Right now he was warm on top of her, but she knew that tomorrow she wouldn't get to have that so she set herself back and decided she'd enjoy as much as she could. After all, that would be the only chance they got to let their bodies finally know each other.

The devil pulled his love's bra off of her, letting it fall down carelessly on the floor and lowering his mouth towards her breasts. It wasn't the first time he had seen them, however, he was so overwhelmed by how soft yet firm they felt, how responsive Chloe was to their stimulation, how beautiful she looked with her top half completely bare. He was mesmerized.

"So gorgeous, so responsive," he said with his mouth against her left nipple, mouthing at it and leaving kisses all around as he played with the right one in between his fingers. "I love you so much," and Chloe cried harder because not only was she being simulated, having one of her nipples inside the devil's mouth, but she had also heard him say that he loved her for the very first time. He loved her, he really, truly did.

"I love you, too," she moaned, lowering her hands to Lucifer's back and placing them over the bumps where his wings were hiding.

Lucifer suddenly pulled away from her breasts, standing on his knees and finally undoing the fly of his trousers as he kicked off his red bottoms. Chloe kicked off her boots and went to undo her own zipper but Lucifer beat her to it, undoing it himself and going back into a crawling position; mouth close to the heat in between her legs but not quite. His hands grabbed her thighs and went up and down them, taking her a little by surprise when on one of the upstrokes he lowered his hands towards her bum and grabbed the waistline of her jeans. He looked at her in the eye and asked for permission with the gaze of his own, lowering her jeans over her bum when she nodded and lifted off her backside from the bed to help him take them off. He caught her underwear and in one go his beautiful detective was left naked before his eyes.

He couldn't look away, he couldn't tear his eyes off of the beautiful body that lay in front of him, all covered in goosebumps because of his touch. He couldn't help but feel his cock grow thicker and heavier inside his boxers at the sight, thankful that he had undone his fly earlier.

"I want to see you," he heard his love say through a shy and low voice. She was laying back on his backrest, showing herself naked to him and allowing him to do whatever he wanted with her body. He only had to look at her in the eyes and he would know. "I want to see all of you,"

He leaned in to kiss her in the mouth and lingered there for a while before pulling away, back to standing on his knees. He teased his hands around his own waistline and pulled down his trousers, delighting Chloe with the sight of his tented, black boxers and wasted no time before pulling them down and letting his cock free. He swore he could hear Chloe gasp at the sight of him completely naked.

"So gorgeous," she mumbled before sitting up and going for the devil's mouth, kissing away all the sadness, all the angst, all his fears. Her hands went to his shoulder and down by his back once again, toying at the two barely noticeable bumps there. She circled them with her fingers as they kissed, as their mouths expressed everything their hearts felt, pouring feelings in the mouth of the other. She pressed lightly on the bumps before pulling away. "I want to see _all_ of you, I wanna see them too,"

"Chloe," he breathed out her name before pulling her in for a kiss that she broke after a couple of seconds, ignoring her request. "I... My wings... They're not beautiful," he mumbled, referring to how they had looked when they were down by The Mayan. Chloe had already seen them and had been terrified by them, why would she want to see them now?

"Yes, they are," she was quick to argue, standing on her knees to face her lover more easily. "They are beautiful because they are a part of you," she let some tears roll down her cheeks as she spoke, placing her tiny hand on the devil's cheek. "They are part of who you are and I love all that you are. I want to see them because I love them, I love you," the devil left out a strangled gasp and a bittersweet smile at that, thinking about what good he had to have done to deserve such a beautiful woman with such a beautiful soul.

"Very well," he agreed, going down for a kiss as he let his wings unfurl from his back, arching in all their glory.

He heard Chloe gasp before he saw her; blue eyes shining brightly as she faced the proof of divinity once again. And then he felt her as her tentative hand went to his shoulder and further, touching one of them. It was then when he noticed that his wings were no longer red and burnt, they were no longer the wings of the devil, of evil incarnate. They were the wings of an angel, of the angel he had once been, of the angel he apparently was. He had to feel how Chloe's fingers went through his feathers to realize he was no longer a monster, he was no longer a threat.

"Oh, dear..." Chloe refrained herself from saying 'God' because she knew how much Lucifer hated it when people did that but still, she couldn't look away. He was truly beautiful, totally naked; body, wings, and soul bare before her, all there for her to watch, love and cherish. "Make love to me," she asked, placing her gaze back in the devil's black eyes.

"Your wish is my command," she smiled small before she felt the lips of her lover back on hers as his weight pulled her backward; the devil lowering her down to lay on her back with the utmost care.

As soon as her back was once again against the soft mattress and silk sheets, she felt the lips of her lover slide down her jaw and neck before she felt _him_. He was teasing her opening with the head of his cock, actually unsure if he should proceed or not. He didn't want to ruin things with his beloved detective but once again, that moment would be the last they'd see or feel of each other in a very long time so he might as well try to make the best of it. Try to make the best memories possible so he could cherish them once her touch and love were physically away from him.

And so he did, he pushed himself into the tight heat of his detective's body, feeling overwhelmed by how good and _right_ she felt lying underneath him. This was how they were meant to be, they were to share their intimacy, he could feel it all over his body, throbbing as his blood ran through his veins, blood that could only be drawn out by her, by his weakness.

"I love you," she whispered once again as her ankles locked on Lucifer's lower back, hoping the three little words wouldn't wear out by how much she was using them. She just needed her little devil to remember them, to remember what they had. And with that she cried, overwhelmed by the pressure and fullness she physically felt but also the feelings that clouded her heart, how much that moment felt like a goodbye.

"You're so perfect, my own perfect miracle," he said lowly, finally bottoming out and picking up a pace, making love to his detective in the slowest, most passionate way.

"Look at me," Chloe asked as her hands made their way to the devil's shoulders and then his cheeks, holding him steady so he would look at her. She wasn't stupid, she could tell how much he was avoiding her eyes. He ultimately did, letting his teary black eyes connect with the ones of his lover. "It's okay," she talked lowly, finding it harder to do so as her partner picked up a stronger and faster pace, making love to her so they wouldn't forget.

Suddenly and as if he felt all too vulnerable, he let his wings fold over and wrap them in a cocoon, much like they had done the day she discovered his true self, wrapping them up to protect her from the storm of bullets. Even though he knew they were alone in the penthouse, he felt like that moment wasn't _theirs_ enough, that it wasn't private enough, and he needed to make it right, or as right as it could be. So he wrapped up his love, his beautiful miracle in the softness and warmth of his wings, letting her see him and only him as he thrust his way into her, making them feel their love carnally for the very first time.

"You're so good," Chloe mumbled in between tears and moans, caressing the devil's cheeks as they went after they climax, as they tried to chase their high. Being honest, both of them knew they weren't going to last, that this moment they were having would be cut short because it'd be far too difficult to hold themselves back. They didn't want to hold themselves back, but they also didn't want their time together on earth to ever end. Guess they could only do so much.

Chloe came undone first, crying and telling the devil how she felt, how much she loved him and how good he was. She touched rock bottom, climaxing with a high pitched moan and running her fingers through the softness of Lucifer's feathers as she let herself be taken away by the intensity and bittersweetness of her orgasm. The devil followed soon after, only needing the tiny added pressure of his miracle's orgasm to let himself come undone inside her; his breathing fast and agitated as he buried his face on the crook of Chloe's neck, coming back down from his marvelous high.

And all of a sudden it was all over, far too fast, far too quickly. Lucifer went back to laying beside her as they both tried to get their breathing even; Chloe immediately clinging to the devil's chest and holding him down against the bed.

"Don't go," she breathed out, placing her head just above Lucifer's heart and hearing it beat strongly. "You don't have to go now, you can stay for a while," she added, resting her naked body against that of her loved one and praying that he wouldn't have to go away for one last time. "Please,"

"Okay," the devil said simply, letting his right arm wrap around his detective's waist and pull her even closer to his body.

They stayed in silence for a while, silently crying and hurting over the fact that that was it, their carnal goodbyes had been said. Lucifer was staying because Chloe was vulnerable, staying because she was hurting, but she knew he would be gone as soon as she opened her eyes. Like that, it'd be all over.

Just as slumber started to wash over her, she opened her mouth and started leaving small and chaste kisses all over the freckled skin of the devil's chest, trying to kiss away his sorrow and let him know how much she truly loved him.

"Don't you dare forget me," she said after a while of just kissing every inch of skin she could, trying to map out his body with her lips. Her voice was sleepy, the devil could tell.

"I would never," he answered, planting a sweet and lingering kiss on the crown of her head, holding on tighter to her body. "I wouldn't be able, even if I wanted to,"

"Good," she said simply, placing her head back on the sturdy chest and hearing his heartbeat for the last time.

"You're my miracle, Chloe. There will not be a single moment while I'm down there that you won't be on my mind," the detective choked on her own emotions, keeping down a sob from escaping and just letting her tears roll down her cheeks. She couldn't help but feel a tight knot down her throat that wouldn't let her breathe properly.

"Good, because there won't be a single moment where you're not on my mind here either," she answered, telling herself it would be best not to look at him as they spoke because it would make it even more difficult. How naive she was.

"I love you, my miracle," Lucifer managed to say before his love fell asleep to the sound of his heart and the rising and falling of his chest. "I will never, ever forget you,"

It was barely an hour after Chloe fell asleep that Lucifer found the courage within himself to leave the comfortable bed and the heat of his lover. He found it extremely difficult to leave her, to finally say goodbye, but he would rather having her alive and afar than dead or captured because he didn't do something he was supposed to. He had promised her that no harm would come her way and his word was his bond.

And so he left, dressing himself up in the exact same suit he had on when his detective arrived, hoping it'd still have her scent impregnated into the fibers. He unfurled his wings once again and looked back, only to mumble a small and timid "Goodbye" and take flight, leaving Chloe and Earth behind for good.

What meaning would life have if one's world was destroyed? Well, Lucifer's world was no longer earth, it was no longer the free will, the chicks and the booze it offered, no. His world was the blonde, stubborn, tenacious and caring woman who would wake up to an empty bed and a broken heart.

And nothing wakes you up like waking up alone.


	2. Chapter II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys WTF?? Two days and over 500 hits?? I love you so damn much! 
> 
> I hope you like chapter 2. Although it's about the same length of chapter 1 I can't help but feel like it's a bit rushed. Sorry about that but still, I hope you like it. 
> 
> Leave kudos and comments, they reLly motivate me to keep writing!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

When Chloe wakes up the next morning is, indeed, to an empty bed and a broken heart; the sheets are cold and silky as they lay on her body while the place looks eerily quiet. She knew beforehand things would go that way but it still doesn't make it hurt any less when she opens her eyes and is faced with the other side of the bed completely empty. She just cries, holding on to Lucifer's pillow and breathing in what was left of his scent, trying to somehow feel the devil closer to her. In reality, she knows where he is: beneath her, in a place much warmer.

She knows that it was for the best, that Lucifer did it because it was in humanity's best interest, hell, in hers even, but she couldn't help but miss him already. He had crawled his way into her heart over the years of working together, they even managed to fall in love along the way and just... She wanted to wake up from it all, let it be just a nightmare. She wanted to hear her alarm go off and wake up, make Trixie's breakfast and head to work to meet her handsome devil and solve yet another case. They had one of the greatest closure rates of all the precinct when they worked together. She wanted to believe that it was all a lie, that Lucifer was hiding somewhere in the penthouse and would come out any time laughing at her.

Half an hour went by and everything still looked the same, quiet, abandoned, foreign. Chloe couldn't understand how a couple of hours ago everything was okay, Lucifer was by her side and they were working cases as always and now he just wasn't. If he had acted a little bit more like himself when he told her he would be leaving, she would have hoped that he'd come back eventually. Instead, all she got was a serious devil telling her he would be leaving her and their life behind on earth. She didn't care if it was to protect her, out of all people, she wanted him beside her. Whenever they were together was when she felt the safest. She almost felt mad that it all had to end so suddenly, that they had to be ripped apart.

She laid in bed for what felt like millennia, crying, hugging the bedsheets, his pillow, refusing to acknowledge the fact that those were the last things she would have of him. Those were the only things able to prove that he existed, that he had been a part of her life at some point in time. She loved him so much and she couldn't help but blame herself, to think that it was on her. If only she wouldn't have reacted the way she did when she found out about his true self, if only she hadn't left. Maybe things would have been different. Hell, things _would_ have been different.

It was noon when she finally felt strong enough to get out of bed. She had laid her eyes on one of Lucifer's long silk robes and stood up to get it, putting it on and letting her small frame be drowned by what was left of her lover. His scent was the strongest around the collar of it, so she pulled it up and breathed in deep, keeping his scent close by. She wrapped the silk around her midriff and made her way towards the devil's dresser, laughing bittersweetly when she got there.

The room was shaped like a pentagon and the walls were deep red. There was a rectangular table in the middle and all the dark wooden wardrobes were carefully made so they would preserve the room's shape. And she smiled because only Lucifer would be one to do that.

She grabbed a white and plain shirt and smiled again when she looked at the tag. Of course, the plain white dressing shirt had to be Dolce & Gabanna. With that in hand, she made her way into the bathroom, taking a shower and using the devil's shower gel and shampoo. She wasn't a fan of the idea of getting rid of Lucifer's scent off her body but she felt absolutely filthy. The best she could do was shower and try to still smell like him as much as possible.

A couple of minutes later she stepped out of the shower, having cried a tiny bit more, and dressed only with Lucifer's plain white dressing shirt. It was so big on her that it almost reached her knees. It would be comical if the reason why she was wearing it wasn't that she missed its owner.

Walking into the room once again, she looked from afar at the mess they had made. Lucifer's clothes were no longer scattered on the floor as hers were, but the bed portrayed perfectly everything that had happened the night before; bedsheets and pillows lying scattered on the floor. She couldn't find it in her heart to clean up, to disrupt the disordered mess of clothes that was physical proof that the night before had happened. She took a deep breath, picking up her grey jeans and underwear, and putting them both on, choosing to leave her shirt on the floor to keep the beautiful disaster as untouched as possible.

She stood there for a while, going over everything that had happened there but on her mind, recreating it as if it would help to keep it in her mind forever. That she did until her eyes laid right in the middle of the bed. There was a pure, white feather there, small enough that it was barely the length of the palm of her hand. She picked it up and held it against the sun that was filtering through the windows, seeing how it would shine with a tenuous golden light. _They shine with the light of God_ , was what Lucifer had said once. God, what a bastard. She held the feather to her heart, feeling somehow connected to it. That was the moment she decided she would carry that feather with her wherever she went. She'd have a piece of Lucifer with her at all times.

She put the feather in the chest pocket of the shirt and picked her phone up, which had managed to fall off her pocket sometime last night and checked for texts. She gasped when she saw what time it was and that she had roughly ten missed calls from Dan and a text that said that a new case had dropped in and asking her why she hadn't shown up in the station yet. He must have been really worried, Chloe could only be thankful that he had watched over Trixie for the night. She quickly typed a reply, saying she would be there as soon as possible and then sighed, realizing something awful.

Life, her life, had to go on.

She would have to learn how to be a detective again, all because one half of her wouldn't be by her side. She would have to go pick Trixie up from school later that afternoon and pretend she was fine so her nine-year-old wouldn't worry when in reality all she wanted to do was cry, be held by the devil himself and be told 'everything is going to be fine'. She would have to learn how to live without Lucifer and being honest with herself, she was terrified.

She held back her own tears, trying to build back her facade of a strong, almighty woman and with her mind as blank as it could be, she left the penthouse, trying not to pay much attention to all the details and things that proved Lucifer had once lived there. She really didn't want to cry again, so she made a beeline to her car and drove off to the precinct, running all the lines she would tell her friends and coworkers when they asked about Lucifer's absence.

"Hey, Chloe," she was greeted by Ella's usual cheerfulness and brightness, realizing only then that she had made her way into work without even noticing. That was how badly she did not want to think. "What happened to you? You're never late,"

"I..." She tried to say something but Ella was quick to interrupt her.

"Doesn't matter, you'll tell me later. How's Charlie?" Oh, yeah, she could talk about that, couldn't she?

"Last I heard he's fine, back with Linda and Amenadiel," she said simply, trying too hard not to think about Lucifer and all the celestial stuff going through her mind.

"Oh, I'm so glad he's okay. Poor little babe," Chloe really hated how everyone was being themselves. How nobody had even turned their heads around, not even wondered why the precinct felt so downhearted and sad. The only thing that had stuck out was that Chloe Decker had been extremely late for work, but no one even wondered why. "So, about the case, Dan's been on it for the time being because we couldn't reach you but I guess you can take it now, I'll catch you up," that was exactly what she meant.

"Thanks," her voice sounded small as she was unable to keep the sad tone out of it.

"So, the victim is a twenty-three-year-old male, his name was Kyle Allen, dead by lye poisoning. He had his throat swollen shut and his entire GI tract covered in blisters and blood," Chloe made a disgusted face at that as Ella actually seemed excited about it. "Dan checked his phone and the last person he called was his girlfriend, a girl called Faith something, she's in the interrogation room,"

"Thanks, Ella," Chloe already missed the sturdy presence beside her, the one she hadn't paid much attention to at the very beginning but now ached to feel. She already felt so lonely. "Do we know motive?"

"There is no way a two hundred pound human could accidentally intake enough lye to kill themselves so definitely murder. He was found at one of his father's properties, a family home in Beverly Hills, and the only thing missing was the house title, so maybe it's money?" Ella wondered, handing Chloe the case file and smiling brightly. She was always so happy. "I'll leave this to you and Lucifer, Dan's down by the kitchen if you need to ask him anything else. Gotta go analyze some stomach contents," she sounded awfully happy to be analyzing stomach contents.

"Thanks—"

"Wait, where's Lucifer?" And there it was. The question she was so desperately trying to avoid, the only question she did not want to answer.

"I... He... He told me he had some family issues back home and that he had to go back," she went for the easy way out, which conveniently wasn't too far from the truth. You would only have to add celestial beings and him being the ruler of Hell for it all to be the whole truth. That and the fact that he was most certainly not going to come back.

"Oh! I'll check up on him later then," she said simply, already turning her body towards the lab and attempting to leave.

"Actually, Ella, he's not coming back," she swallowed the knot in her throat as she spoke.

"Uh, no?" Ella said incredulously. "Don't you know him already? He goes away, does something super dramatic and then comes back. He always does," she laughed. "Babe, you should know this by now!"

"Ells, I... I think this time he's being serious," she spoke without looking at her in the eye, afraid she would break.

"Chloe, he's Lucifer, he's never serious!" She chuckled lightly, patting Chloe on the shoulder. "I'll tell you the biggest 'I told you so' when he barges in, walking like he owns the place. Love you, sweetie, see you around," it was after that conversation that she started to debate if she should tell them that Lucifer is dead. In some kind of twisted and awful way he was, but she also knew he wasn't. He was an angel, he was immortal. He could physically come back anytime and he'd still be fine, and although she knew in her heart he wouldn't, she still didn't want to paint him as dead.

She swallowed her own emotions for what felt like the hundredth time that day and walked over to the kitchen, finding Dan grabbing the electric kettle and making himself a coffee.

"Chlo, hi. Are you okay, is everything okay?" Dan had been the only one who had reacted differently to her absence, being quick to hug her and make sure she wasn't hurt. "You are never late to work,"

"I'm fine, Dan, I really am," what a big, fat lie. She was far from fine, she was just really good at pretending. "Just wrapped up in some things with Lucifer. We won't be hearing much of him, he had to go back home indefinitely," she went for the quick and simple story, not wanting to get too into detail and have to make up more of her lie.

"And that's why you're wearing one of his shirts?" Dan asked, pointing at the white fabric covering her torso. It was obvious that the shirt wasn't hers, obvious by the way that the shirt engulfed her small frame.

"I... It's complicated and I really don't want to talk about it," she said defensively, tugging at the hem of Lucifer's shirt.

"Okay, okay. Are you taking the case? Twenty-three-year-old male, lye—" she cut him off.

"I was hoping you could keep working on it? I'm not feeling like myself, I just want to go home. I think I'm gonna ask the lieutenant to have today off, maybe tomorrow, too," Dan nodded, holding tightly onto his mug.

"This has something to do with that imbecile, doesn't it?" He was clearly mad, she could tell. Maybe it had been all the years of marriage. "What did he do now? Something selfish, I bet, thinking only of himself,"

"No, Dan, just... I don't want to talk about it but... If it makes you feel any better, what he did was the most beautiful, selfless act he has done in his entire life," and she truly tried to believe that, the fact that putting hers and humanity's best interest before his own wellbeing and happiness was a beautiful, selfless act. She wanted to believe that so desperately so she could have at least one reason not to be even worse off about him leaving.

"I find it hard to believe," Dan said as he crossed his arms over his chest, picking up a defensive stand. "I can pick Trix up if you're not up for it," he suggested then with a softer voice.

"No, no, I'll go. I'll feel better having my little monkey around," she smiled sweetly at the image of their daughter, missing her already. "Thanks, Dan," she gave him a sad smile and, with a pat on his shoulder, she left towards the lieutenant's office, ready to ask for her day off.

The lieutenant was very understanding of the situation... Well, of the made-up situation where Chloe told her she was feeling off and wanted to take two personal days in a row. Given the fact that Chloe rarely did that, her boss was unable to deny the request, giving her the rest of the day and the next one off to relax and feel better. In all honesty, Chloe couldn't feel ashamed of lying so much, she needed it.

Things took a turn when, on the way out from the precinct, she bumped into one of the only three people other than herself that knew about divinity or were celestials for that matter.

"Hello, Chloe," Amenadiel's voice said and she smiled small, standing straight in front of the tall angel.

"Amenadiel, hi, how's Charlie?" It was the very first thing that crossed her mind given everything that had happened the night before.

"He's okay, he had kind of a rough night but we're all now feeling better," he answered, looking around at the precinct.

"I'm glad to hear that," Chloe smiled tightly.

"I... I was actually looking for you. I wanted to thank Dan, Ella and you for finding my son and... Well, specifically you since... You know," Chloe could tell he was off, much like herself, but she was unable to pin the reason why. Amenadiel had always been someone tough to read.

"It's our job, Amenadiel, we're happy to help," She gave him a smile that barely resembled a real one, the ones that she used to give. She was really glad that baby Charlie was okay and that no demon had taken him to Hell but she just couldn't find it in herself to smile genuinely when a whole part of herself wasn't beside her anymore.

"I also wanted to ask if you had seen Lucifer? I wanted to thank him as well. I've been calling him but it goes straight to voicemail so I thought that maybe you'd know something," and there it was, the third and hopefully last time she'd have to talk to someone about Lucifer. The difference was that with Amenadiel there was no way she could get away with lying.

"I... He... He didn't tell you?" She tried that way, maybe Amenadiel knew something about his departure but wasn't putting two and two together.

"No, he didn't. I saw him last night at The Mayan but I... He was just being his usual self. Do you know anything?" So Amenadiel didn't know. It made Chloe feel even worse now because she was the only one that knew and one of the main reasons why Lucifer was no longer with them. Amenadiel would hate her.

"Maybe we should talk somewhere more private," she suggested as she started to walk towards an empty interrogation room. She let Amenadiel in before her and closed the door behind their backs, sighing loudly as she would have to finally talk about it.

"Chloe, what's happening?" She could discern the uncertainty in Amenadiel's voice.

"I..." She exhaled loudly, already trying to keep her tears from streaming down her face. She had never been much of a crier, what was wrong with her? "I went over to the penthouse last night," she said simply, sitting on top of the table and dangling her feet, trying to find a way to distract herself. "He... He was off. He's never serious, y' know? He... Amenadiel, I had never seen Lucifer afraid, he looked terrified,"

"Oh, no," he said with his deep voice small, resting his weight against a wall.

"He... He said something about demons knowing he didn't want to go back to Hell, he— he was afraid they'd keep defying him. You know we... We were right about the prophecy, it is about hell coming to earth and... He just was afraid the demons would come back," her voice was strained, anyone could see she was holding back from crying. She really didn't want to cry again.

"He went back, didn't he?" Chloe nodded at Amenadiel's statement, finally allowing one single tear roll down her cheek. Amenadiel laughed bitterly, hitting the wall but not strong enough so it would break. "He has to be stupid, he... Eve and he broke up, the prophecy... They'd already stopped it," he argued, and at that, Chloe started full-on crying, remembering the beautiful words the devil had told her before he left.

"I... Before he left he told me... Eve wasn't his first love... I was," she managed to get the words out of her mouth without sobbing but she finally broke down in the end, crying as fiercely as she had earlier that morning. Amenadiel was quick to pull her to his chest, trying to comfort her somehow but he knew what she needed, or rather who.

"I... I'm so sorry, Chloe. This is all my father's fault, he's a bastard," Amenadiel said, rubbing her back as she cried on his shoulder. "He... I... He gave up the thing he loved the most in order to protect you, he..." Amenadiel laughed bitterly. "That definitely sounds like my brother... I'm not surprised,"

"What do you mean?" The detective pulled back, looking at the angel in the eye as he spoke. She had a feeling Amenadiel was keeping something for her.

"Of course, he didn't tell you," Amenadiel pulled her back into his embrace, letting her cry her sorrows out, hoping she'd feel better. "He... This is not the first time he goes to Hell for you, Chloe" She gasped slightly but didn't say a word, allowing the angel to continue. "That time you were poisoned, that you almost died... No one told you that Professor Carlile's formula for the antidote was only in his mind. He hadn't written it down anywhere. You'd make far too many questions if you had known and I don't think he was ready to let you know he was actually the devil," Amenadiel spoke quietly, rubbing her back up and down as she slowly stopped crying. "He went back to Hell to talk to him and get it, he... He saved your life,"

"He really did that?" She asked, not believing it completely.

"Yes. At the time he... He didn't have his wings, so the only way for him to go back to Hell was through death. We literally had to kill him in the room underneath yours," Chloe had never stopped crying, she had only toned it down, but after hearing such a thing she started back again. "He even got stuck on his way out and our mom had to go there and pull him out,"

"He really did that for me?" She asked incredulously, crying harder by the minute.

"He did. He's done so many things to protect you, he killed our own brother, Uriel, for father's sake," Chloe could tell Amenadiel was mad at God, it was obvious. She knew that Lucifer and Amenadiel hadn't got on that well over the years, but while on earth they had grown closer together. Amenadiel had lost a brother as much as she had lost her lover.

"Wait, he killed your brother? Why? And like, aren't you all immortal?" Now she was confused besides being sad; problems just seemed to be piling up.

"He... It's far more complicated but essentially he made a deal with Father to get Mother back to Hell when she escaped, which was around the time Malcolm died. He... The deal was a blank check for your life. Malcolm would have killed you if he hadn't made that deal and when he didn't get mom back to hell, Father sent Uriel to pressure him. He... Uriel was able to predict patterns, and even if we angles are forbidden from killing humans, Uriel could just move an insignificant thing and something awful would happen," Amenadiel sighed. "When he threatened to take both, you and mom, Lucifer just... He used a weapon, a blade that wipes your soul from existence and... He killed him," Chloe couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that Lucifer had done such things to protect her, he had killed his own brother because of her. The fact that he had killed Uriel was awful but she couldn't help but love Lucifer even more.

"I... Do you think he'll come back?" She wondered, crying still and holding on tightly to the angel.

"Chloe, he... He's done all of that to protect you, he killed his own blood so you'd be safe. If he went to hell to protect you, I..." The angel sighed. "I wouldn't expect him to come back," and just when Chloe thought she couldn't cry anymore, bigger and thicker tears started to roll down her cheeks as she felt how her heart started to break even further. Lucifer, the love of her life, had gone to the place he hated the most in order to protect her, in order to keep her safe and now she knew she'd never see him again. She thought she knew Lucifer, the cheery guy who did something dramatic and then came back like nothing had happened, just as Ella said, but now she couldn't help but feel like she had been lied to, that she never knew who he was. Why hadn't he ever told her how selfless he had been when it came to her?

"I miss him so much," she mumbled, clinging on tightly to the angel.

"I know, Chloe, we'll all miss him," Amenadiel tried to comfort her with his words but he soon realized it was useless.

"No, you don't understand, I love him. I told him I loved him," she was sobbing, mourning the loss of her lover. She physically felt how her heart was breaking, her chest ached. Her whole body ached for him, for his touch. "And he... He told me he loved me back and I just..."

"That's exactly why he went back to Hell, it's because he loves you. He can't bear the thought of you getting hurt, much less if it's because of him. He swore that no harm would come your way, he is a man of his word," Amenadiel tried to smile as he verbally captured the essence of his brother's love for her.

Chloe chose to stay quiet, to not give an answer to what Amenadiel had said. She knew Lucifer loved her, he told her and showed her, she had no doubts about that. She just wanted to have him by her side, she didn't care that she could very probably be captured by demons and such, she wouldn't be scared because she'd be with him, he'd hold her hand and protect her through it all just like he had always done.

Later that evening, when she got home and put Trixie to bed, she sat on the floor in the middle of her living room. She put the palms of her hands against each other and did something she never thought she would do. She prayed to the devil that night, prayed for him to hear her, for him to remember her.

"I love you, I'll always will. Don't ever forget me,"


	3. Chapter III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys WTF? How are we already over 1k hits and 100 kudos? You really are unbelievable, ilsm. 
> 
> This one is a little bit longer, about 7k and I was wondering if you'd let me know how my writing is grammar-wise. I'm not a native speaker so I can make REALLY dumb mistakes. 
> 
> I'll leave you to this chapter which is a little piece of shit (like everything I write, hehe). I don't know why I keep hoping you'll like this. 
> 
> Keep leaving kudos and comments, they make me the happiest. If I don't answer it's because I don't know how they work but I promise I read every single one of them. I swear I love you so damn much.
> 
> All my love, Rena.

A little over a month goes by and there's not a single day where Chloe doesn't think about Lucifer. There's not a single day where she can say: 'today I don't miss you as much', there's not a single case where she doesn't miss his presence and help. She can't find peace, she feels lonely, so much that some times she falls asleep crying, clutching on tightly to the small and white feather that the devil left behind. She can't help but feel like that little feather is the only thing she has left of him.

She couldn't believe how many things had changed since Lucifer left, how some things that were routinary, that she did without even thinking, now had turned into something tough. For one, she started to think more subjectively about cases. Lucifer used to be the one to add the out of place, usually not asked for comment or action that would help solve a case, and without him around she had to learn how to think both like herself and like he used to. She needed perspective sometimes, and that was a hard thing to achieve when working alone. She had also refused when the lieutenant offered her a new partner to work with, not being ready to start working with someone else. The only one she would consider working with was Dan, but they had agreed a long time ago that they wouldn't work together given their past history so she was still taking cases all on her own. Truth to be told, she doesn't think she will ever be ready to work with somebody else.

She still prays to the devil. She sometimes feels like it's useless but she can't help but miss him. He had become a constant in her life and she lost him far too soon, no one told her it would be that way. Amenadiel said that he can probably hear her when she prays but that he's unable to answer, so that's a little motivation for her to keep going. He'd told her that praying in between them felt like some kind of unidirectional communication, that he would hear Lucifer and come to him whenever he would pray, and vice-versa. She talks to him when she has a bad day, a good one, or when she's just tired of a case or hits a dead end. It's as if praying to him helped her get more into perspective. Well, that and of course, she prays to him when she misses him so much that her heart begins to ache, whenever her pain and longing for him are so much that she starts to cry, feeling heartbroken all over again. If she had to give a definition of how she felt, she would say that it's pretty much like when someone close to you dies. She felt that way when her father died, now she does with Lucifer. The only thing that changes is that she knows her father is dead, the devil, on the other hand, is not.

Trixie had asked her about Lucifer a lot, sometimes over breakfast or whenever she hears a funny joke. Chloe can tell she misses him as well, even if the devil wasn't as close to her. Chloe had told her the same old story, that he had some family issues and had to go back home indefinitely. She couldn't find it in her heart to tell her that Lucifer was practically dead, that he would never come back. Trixie, being her cheery self, thought that he'd come back eventually, she was just impatient as to when.

Another thing that had changed a lot, too, was her relationship with Linda and Amenadiel. She would have added Maze into the picture but she left once she heard about Lucifer going back to Hell. Maybe she just needed to find herself now that her lifelong best friend wasn't around. She had asked Amenadiel to take her back to Hell as well but he refused, reminding her of Charlie and her life on earth. Chloe had been going to their home whenever she felt lost, which now seemed to be most of the time. She still had so many questions about the celestial world and they were the only people she knew who could talk about it with her. She had even asked Amenadiel about her own father and how he was doing.

Linda had become a close friend of hers, the one she could rely on when her emotions went wild and she felt mentally drained, especially when it was about something related to Lucifer, which was ninety percent of the time. She had got to a point in their friendship where she felt like she could talk about anything and everything with her. She and Charlie were a true treasure.

She still had a life, a child and a job, and although she would still crumble into a million pieces at night, during the day she had to act tough, go around LA solving murders, being the mother she had always been. She would miss having her partner by her side and would probably work alone for the rest of her life, but she had to move on. At least she could see that and she was so thankful that Linda was helping her to do so.

That morning, in particular, goes by pretty uneventfully. She wakes up, takes a hot and long shower, wakes Trixie up, makes breakfast and drives her daughter to school, finding herself with enough time to do such things with no rush. She chats with her little one, listening carefully to everything she tells her until she drops her off at their destination, telling her she'd be the one to pick her up that afternoon. Then she heads to work, where she's trying to solve a young woman's murder.

She approaches Dan's desk, greeting her ex-husband and taking the cup of coffee she's offered. Ever since Lucifer was no longer there, Dan had picked up the habit of bringing her coffee every morning, just like she liked it: double shot and sugar. They were working on a case that had been dropped on her desk last afternoon, so they were still trying to find a way to approach it.

"Hey, any news on our victim?" She asks him, resting her bum against the edge of the desk and sipping lightly on her coffee.

"We spoke to her parents. They said Ashley was just being her usual self lately, no strange behavior or anything," Dan says, picking up his own coffee.

"Well, that's weird. It's definitely a crime of passion, nine stabs to the chest in a nineteen-year-old?" Chloe wonders, tapping in her cardboard mug. "Any boyfriend, girlfriend, significant other?"

"Not that her parents know of, no, but Ella found traces of Adderall on her clothes so maybe it's drug-related,"

"Do you think she was dealing for someone?" Chloe asks and she sees Dan shrug. "I don't think so. She was in med school, it's pretty common to use Adderall to keep focused and study harder," she suggests, eyeing the case file on Dan's desk. "I'm going to talk to Ella and see if she has something,"

She thanked Dan for the coffee once again and made her way to the precinct's lab, finding Ella right away as she was bopping to some music. She was wearing a tee-shirt that had a tea bag on it and said 'tea-shirt'. That shirt screamed 'Ella' on all fronts.

"Ella," Chloe called her but she still didn't look up, checking something on the microscope. "Ella!" She knocked on the table strongly enough that the forensics tech looked up, smiling brightly at her and pulling her earbuds out.

"Hi, Chlo!" She greeted her happily; her gaze quickly going down south to her chest. "Woah, what happened to your boobs?" Ella exclaimed, looking down at her breasts. She was wearing a long-sleeved light blouse, with a cardigan on top, seeing as it was late October, but she didn't think her breasts would be so on display.

"What about them?" She had been startled by Ella's forwardness but still, it was Ella, it was expectable. She looked down at her own breasts, finding them to be pretty normal.

"They're huge! Did you get a boob job or something?" Ella said, walking over to her friend and leaving her iPod aside.

"I didn't get a boob job! What's gotten into you?" She said lightly, letting herself laugh a little at Ella's 'ellaness'.

"Man, I wish my boobs would just grow out of the blue," she looked down at her own breasts, sighing dramatically and walking over to her computer.

"Yeah, whatever," the detective shrugged it off but still smiled. "Do you have any leads on my case?"

"I actually do," she said, typing something on the computer. "So, no prints on the murder weapon but I did find prints on her safe. I'm running them through AFIS, I'll text you the results when I get them,"

"Anything else?" Ella sighed.

"Sadly no, this seems like one of those slow, dreaded, never-ending cases, filled with dead ends and-" Chloe scowled at her and Ella smiled childishly, walking away from her computer. "Sorry. I'll have the team do a third sweep in case we missed something,"

"That's okay. Any more witnesses?" The detective asked, sipping lightly on her coffee.

"The roommate came in to make a statement. Guess you can interrogate her," she suggested, shrugging her shoulders as she made her way towards Chloe. "Hey, babe, any chance you got a tampon on you? I ran out and I'm wearing a pad and I really hate them because they're uncomfortable and smelly and-"

"Yeah, sure," Chloe interrupted her rambling while she pulled up her purse, pulling out a tampon from her sanitary pocket.

It wasn't the first time she gave a tampon to a friend, nor would it be the last one, and yet, for the very first time, she felt uneasy about it. She inspected the tampon on her hand, the pink envelope staring right back at her as a proverbial bucket of cold water soaked her up completely. A crazy thought flashed through her mind at that moment, crazy enough that it made a shiver run down her spine. As she handed Ella the tampon she couldn't help but think about when was the last time she had got her period, doing quick math in her brain.

Oh shit, she was late. She was really, really late.

"Babe, you okay?" Ella asked, trying to take the tampon from Chloe's hand and looking at her warily. Chloe snapped back from her trance, letting her grip loose on the tampon so Ella could grab it. "You zoned out on me, everything alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, just... A really, really, _really_ crazy thought went through my mind, that's all," no, that couldn't be. She was just being paranoid.

"You sure?" Ella asked, just to make sure. The atmosphere inside the room had drastically changed, everything felt far too tense.

"Yeah, yeah," Chloe shook her head slightly, trying to get rid of such crazy thoughts. What was going through her mind really couldn't be what was happening. "Anything else?" She clearly looked worried about something, Ella could tell, but she chose not to push her into anything.

"Nope. I'll text you when I get the AFIS back," Chloe smiled tightly.

"Okay, bye Ella," and with that, she left the room, quickly grabbing her phone and opening her period tracking app.

Of course, she was late. She was more than a week late, how hadn't she noticed? It was usual for her to have a five-day window for her period to come, she wasn't a clock, but it never went further than that. Maybe six days at most. Her app said that she was nine days late for her period, which was really, extremely worrying. Either something was really wrong or... No, that couldn't be. The last one had been Lucifer and he had told her thousands of times that he couldn't get women pregnant, that no celestial being could, that was how celestials were made. Such fact made her feel oddly relieved for a mere couple of seconds where she thought that she was in no way pregnant. That was until she remembered Charlie's existence and she started worrying again.

"Holy shit," she murmured, walking towards the interrogation room and already trying not to think too much about it.

The first one she thought about was Linda. She had to talk to Linda. She sent her a quick text and put her phone away, entering the interrogation room and trying to get herself into work mode.

She really couldn't be pregnant, she wanted to believe it was impossible. For one, Lucifer had been back in Hell of over a month now, she really didn't want to believe she was pregnant and alone. Secondly, it was Lucifer. The man detested children with all his heart, he would be a truly terrible parent. Third, the man was a fucking angel, and angels weren't biologically capable of getting women pregnant, so the chances were -rather had to be- astronomical.

She came out of the room half an hour later with no new leads -the suspect had an ironclad alibi- and her head was even more messed up. She just couldn't deal with the idea of being with child, she couldn't function properly, and then there was work too, which seemed to be going nowhere. She really wanted to leave.

When she checked on her phone again, Linda had texted her that she was free to come to their home anytime she wanted, so she quickly made a decision. The case was stuck, and up until Ella got something else to work with they had _nada_ , only paperwork which could be done later at home. Given the fact that there was no way the case would get easier anytime soon, she got into her car and drove to Linda and Amenadiel's house, unable to think of anything else but a baby, a baby with Lucifer's hair, lips... Shit, maybe with wings, even.

Twenty minutes later when she got to their address, she found Linda sitting on the couch and burping Charlie while Amenadiel was doing something in the kitchen, she couldn't tell.

"Chloe, are you alright? I got your text," Linda asked as she turned around, not even trying to get up from the couch. She was patting Charlie on the back to burp him but the baby was slowly falling asleep. She understood that maybe Linda wouldn't want to disturb that and she found herself staring into Charlie's little face, mind blank but completely full at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah, just... I had some questions. Really important questions and... And yeah, I'm working a case and I hit a dead end and I had time so... Here I am," she rambled, walking down the few steps from the doorway to the living room. She saw Amenadiel turn his head back at them and she greeted him with a tight smile.

"Well, first off, how have you been?" Linda asked as Chloe sat down on the couch opposite to hers, putting a now asleep Charlie back into both of her arms instead of over her shoulder.

"I... As well as I can be, I guess," she sighed, feeling far too anxious to keep up with the small talk.

"Yeah, I know, we all miss him so much. I can't even imagine what you must be feeling," Chloe smiled tightly, playing with her hands on top of her lap, keeping her eyes off of Linda's. "Yet, something tells me you're not here to talk about him, are you?"

"Yes and no, it's... It's complicated. I..." She sighed, looking at Charlie and how peaceful he looked while sleeping. He had such soft skin and tiny baby hands and feet, he was a dream but moreover, he was the living proof that humans and celestials could, in fact, have children. She didn't know how to feel about that. She saw Linda give her a look of encouragement, so she kept talking. "Lucifer and I were on a case once and I made a joke about how many women he had gotten pregnant over the years. At that time I... I didn't know about celestials and such, but I remember that he said none. That celestials and humans weren't able to have children, that biology just... You know," she wasn't being able to express herself as she would want. She noticed, though, how the topic of their chat caught Amenadiel's interest as the tall angel started making his way towards them, setting a tray with three cups of tea on the coffee table.

"That's right," Amenadiel said, sitting down right beside Linda.

"Yeah, but... How come you guys had Charlie?" Chloe blurted out, picking up one of the three cups of black tea and sipping lightly. No milk and no sugar, just like she liked it.

"That's a great question. I still don't understand it myself," Linda said, looking down at her son and smiling at him. She was such a good mother. They both looked at Amenadiel, the one who seemed to know a little bit more about the matter.

"Well, we... Lucifer and I had this theory... Right around the time that Malcolm died and mom came to Earth, I... I lost my wings and my powers," Chloe was looking attentively at him, trying to erase the image of children looking like a mixture of Lucifer and her running around in the house. "I got my wings back not too long ago when Charlotte..." Everybody understood what he meant with that silence. In fact, Charlotte's death had been a tough subject for everyone. "I flew her to heaven," Chloe smiled sweetly. "So... When Linda and I, well... Were together, I still didn't have my wings and powers so we thought that maybe I had become just as mortal like everybody else. Punches hurt, I could bleed, I was killable. Lucifer and I thought that maybe because I became so mortal I... We were able to conceive Charlie,"

"That does make a huge amount of sense," Linda said, cuddling Charlie further into her chest.

"Yeah, but wait. Charlie is a celestial, isn't he?" Chloe asked, looking at the beautiful and peaceful baby wrapped in a blue blanket.

"He is. Linda, I... I didn't tell you this but while you were pregnant, my sister Remiel came down looking for Charlie. She had sensed him while in heaven and she thought the baby was Lucifer's for a while. That was funny," Amenadiel smiled brightly at Linda while the woman looked pretty surprised, and not in a nice way.

"What did she want with him?" Linda asked, adjusting the blanket around her one-month-old baby.

"She wanted to snatch him up and take him to the Silver City. I didn't let her, of course," Amenadiel said simple, crouching down to leave a small kiss on Charlie's forehead.

"Thanks for telling me that!" Linda said sarcastically and Chloe allowed herself to laugh a little, finding amusement in the small argument. " You and I are gonna talk later," she said to Amenadiel with a serious tone to her voice. She quickly turned around to look at Chloe, finding her smiling amusedly. "Wait... I don't get why this was so urgent. You sounded really desperate on text," Linda said to her as she rocked a sleeping Charlie to a deeper slumber. The baby didn't even notice he was being moved, that was how peacefully asleep he was.

"Well..." Chloe finally came back to reality. To her nine days late reality. She would really have to talk about it but seeing as what happened to Linda and Amenadiel wouldn't apply to her and Lucifer, she thought that maybe, only maybe, there was a bigger chance of her not being pregnant. That made her feel a little bit better. She took a deep breath in and chose to let it all out as quickly as she could, like ripping off a band-aid. "I'm late," While Linda's face changed abruptly into an unreadable expression, Amenadiel's stayed impassive.

"Late for what?"

"Wait, wait, you're _late_?" Amenadiel and Linda spoke at the same time, making Chloe feel pretty overwhelmed. "Amenadiel, take the baby to the room, please," Linda handed him Charlie and Amenadiel moved without much of a hassle, clearly not understanding what being late on a woman meant. "Wait wait, you gotta explain this to me,"

"I..." Chloe sighed, placing her hands on her lap. "Lucifer and I... Well, we slept together right before he left," she explained, looking at how Linda's facial expressions changed. "And today I realized I haven't had a period since before then,"

"Holy shit," Linda said, completely in disbelief.

"I didn't know what to do. I... I thought that maybe talking to you would help me clear things up a little but I'm just all the more confused," Chloe sighed again, tapping her fingers on the fabric of her jeans. "Lucifer, he... He never lost his powers or wings, I'm positive. I don't know what it can be,"

"Chloe, you are taking a pregnancy test, right?" Linda wondered, scooting over to the edge of the couch so she'd be closer to Chloe.

"I really don't want to," Chloe said lowly, playing with the hem of her shirt. The sole thought that maybe, just a couple of inches away from her hands was life growing, a heart beating... It made goosebumps rise on her skin.

"Well, I really think you should," Linda encouraged her, placing one of her hands on top of Chloe's. "Hey, sweetheart, you're not alone, I've got your back," Chloe gave her a tiny smile, unable to do better given the circumstances. "There's one pregnancy test left from when I found out about Charlie in the downstairs bathroom. You can take it if you want, I'll wait for you right here,"

"I really have to do this, don't I?" Linda gave her a small nod as Chloe found the courage within herself to stand up and slowly walk towards the bathroom. She could feel Linda's eyes on her back as she made her way towards the door right beside them, finally stopping once she was inside and with the door closed behind her.

She took a shaky deep breath in and looked at herself in the mirror. Of course, Ella was right. How had she not noticed that her boobs had gotten bigger? It was, indeed, pretty obvious. She smiled bittersweetly when she thought about Lucifer. He definitely would have noticed the moment her boobs had grown, even if it was just a little.

She erased the smile from her face and took a look at the cupboard on her right, opening it with shaky hands. The only thought on her mind was: _'whatever the result is, it'll be for the best'_ and she was repeating it like a mantra, trying o convince herself that everything would be alright. She really hoped that it was, indeed, for the best.

She opened the box and pulled out the test, which was wrapped in a pink envelope. She tore it apart with her teeth and looked at it, eyeing the empty result window. It definitely wasn't the first time she took one of those, it actually went back to way before she had Trixie. It had been one every month for seven months up until one morning the test came back positive. It would be almost comical if she was pregnant now, judging by how hard it had been for her and Dan to conceive Trixie, given the fact that she and Lucifer only had sex once.

Shaking her head to get rid of all thoughts, she took the cap off the test stick and peed on it, quickly putting the cap back on once she was finished and placing it upside down on top of the counter.

Just as she finished washing her hands, she decided she'd look at the little window on the test to check that the control line had shown up and that it was working well. Blame her, but when she was trying to get pregnant with Trixie she had come across countless of defective tests. However, the minute she flipped the stick to check on it, she found two pink lines staring back at her; one of them significantly fainter than the other one.

Two pink lines, that means pregnant.

She definitely wasn't ready to know so soon, she wasn't expecting to read the results so early. She just wanted to check that it was working properly, she hadn't even set the timer for three minutes like every pregnancy text instructive said. She had just washed her hands, it had been less than a minute. Shit, that must mean she was _really_ pregnant.

She picked the test up again, seeing how the first faint line had gotten slightly darker and was working its way towards a much darker pink color. Now it was real, now she knew. There was a life inside of her, a heart beating apart from her own, a whole new person that was half hers and half Lucifer's. A tiny, little blob which probably didn't even look human as of that moment but would one day become one... Well, as human as it could possibly become. She was pregnant and the father of her baby was not only away, but in a whole other dimension as well.

She grabbed the door handle with shaky hands, opening the door and stepping back into the living room with the test in her hands. Linda looked at her and was able to read her like an open book.

"Chlo, you okay?" She managed to say just as Amenadiel made his way back into the living room.

"Holy shit, Linda," Chloe said, walking over to the couch with shaky legs and sitting down, looking straight at the two pink lines. "I'm pregnant,"

"You're what?" Amenadiel said as he sat down, turning his head towards Chloe fast enough to break his own neck. Linda's face was a mixture of surprise and happiness.

"Pregnant," Chloe mumbled again, unable to tear her gaze away from the test. The two pink lines were almost equally dark by then, stating back at her. "I... They came up so fast, less than a minute,"

"Let me see," Linda said, holing her hand out to Chloe so she could put the test on her hand. Chloe did as the gesture told and Linda looked at the lines, gasping at how bold and strong they were. "This is really positive,"

"Can somebody explain to me what is going on?" Amenadiel said, catching both women's attention. Chloe looked at him as one of her hands placed itself on her lap, close enough to her stomach so they would be touching but not too evidently; her fingers barely grazing the fabric of her shirt.

"Chloe is pregnant, Amenadiel," Linda said matter of factly, showing him the positive pregnancy test.

"You told me you loved him!" He said to her with strength painting his voice, clearly mad at the idea that she'd be unfaithful to his brother.

"I do, I... It's his. The baby's Lucifer's," Chloe mumbled, looking into Amenadiel's dark eyes and seeing how the angel managed to calm down. "It really is, he... He's been the only one in a long, _long_ time,"

"I... That's impossible, Chloe, Lucifer never lost his powers or his wings, he..." Chloe watched Amenadiel as he spoke, seeing how a proverbial bucket of ice water fell on him, the realization of something that she clearly didn't know. She saw how his eyes grew wider, rounder, clearly being left speechless.

"What? You know something," Chloe stated, directing his words towards Amenadiel specifically. Linda seemed to catch on to what was happening but Chloe knew she wouldn't talk. If she knew what was going on it was through Lucifer's therapy sessions and she'd never break the doctor-patient confidentiality. "Tell me!"

"Chloe, I..." Amenadiel started, unsure of how to approach such a subject. Of course, his brother hadn't told her. "You know how you make him vulnerable, right?" Chloe nodded, eager to know why she had gotten pregnant in the first place. "I... Back when I was still an angel, I... I was sent down to earth to bless a couple who couldn't have children. It kind of was a first in all history since the beginning of time, for God to send an angel to bless a couple for such things but I did it without questioning much," Chloe nodded, having a feeling that she knew where the conversation was headed. "Some time ago I found out that those people I blessed... They were your parents," Chloe gasped, putting one of her hands on the armrest of the couch and clutching tightly onto it. "You're a miracle, Chloe, created directly by the hand of God,"

The room was submerged into an uncomfortable silence. Chloe's knuckles were turning white from hor hard she was gripping onto the armrest, letting the words sink down on her.

"Of course I am!" She snorted eventually, laughing a little. "What am I? Like a female version of Jesus? Please," she stated, not believing something about divinity for the very first time ever since she found out. She hated that the moment she thought no more crazy shenanigans would come her way, something like that would happen. She felt like she would never be able to completely understand divinity and that fact really bothered her.

"Actually, the whole concept of Jesus is wrong. Dad sent Castiel into the life of 'Jesus' and made him mortal. While he existed and was, in fact, God's Son, he wasn't exactly human," he explained it like it was something simple. Chloe and Linda looked at him with their mouths wide open.

"Oh my, now I'm an angel?" Chloe asked, seriously concerned this time. That would change so many things.

"No, you're not. You're just... While everyone else is arbitrarily put on earth, you were not. My father personally chose this path for you, he put you in the lives of those you love, Lucifer's life mainly," Amenadiel explained, trying to make it sound as simple as possible. Divinity could be difficult to understand sometimes.

"I feel kinda bad because I knew already but I couldn't tell you. Doctor-patient confidentiality," Linda said, taking one of Chloe's hands in hers once again.

"So that's why I make him vulnerable? Why his tricks don't work on me?" She asked, suddenly feeling like it wasn't as unbelievable as she thought.

"Yes, that's our theory. I think that's why you're able to carry his child, as well," Amenadiel concluded, giving Chloe a tiny smile but erasing it once he saw her face transform.

"Wait. Holy shit, I'm having the devil's child," she panicked slightly, feeling actually afraid of what was inside her body. "What if... What if it's born with horns? The red skin... I... I'm not mentally prepared to deliver that, what if it's freaking Rosemary's baby?"

"Calm down, Chloe, you just found out. Breathe," Linda tried to help her calm down, grabbing both of her hands and making her look her in the eye. "Think about Charlie, was he born with wings?" She asked Chloe, guiding her through her breathing.

"He wasn't," she answered, calming down rather quickly.

"See? And he is an angel's child,"

"Besides, Lucifer doesn't have horns, it's just a misinterpretation from Dante's Inferno," Amenadiel added, making Chloe laugh a little.

"Are you okay now?" Linda asked her sweetly, smiling when she saw Chloe nod. "Think about the good things. Like it's yours and Lucifer's baby, you made it together," Amenadiel scrunched up his face at that. Linda elbowed him in the side. "Think about him or her, what they will look like," Chloe managed to get a genuine smile out of her lips, imagining the tiny bundle of joy that would come eventually. If only its father would also be with them. "Besides, lucky you. You won't be the first woman in history to ever carry a celestial child, that's a whole lotta pressure off your shoulders, girl," Chloe laughed a bit, relaxing and feeling all the tension leave her back and shoulders.

"Thank you, guys. I really don't know what I would have done without you," she thanked them, smiling sweetly at the pair.

"Our pleasure, Chlo," Linda stroke her knuckles softly. "I'm the godmother, I'm telling you," when Linda said that, Chloe couldn't help it but let out the biggest laugh she had ever since Lucifer left.

"Linda, are you hearing yourself? Baptizing the devil's child?" She kept laughing about it, genuinely amused.

"I realized that the minute it came out of my mouth," Amenadiel and Linda kept laughing at that, finally feeling happy.

"I know, I know,"

Chloe stayed there with Linda and Amenadiel for a while, drinking some tea and mainly asking questions on Chloe's part. Of course, now that she knew she was pregnant she had to ask Linda everything she had to expect about being pregnant with a celestial. Linda, being the sweetheart she was answered each and every single one of those questions while Chloe couldn't keep herself from comparing what Linda went through with what she went through when she was pregnant with Trixie, finding that most of the things were awfully similar.

Chloe left when it was time to go pick Trixie up from school, thanking Linda and Amenadiel once again and taking her pregnancy test with her. As she drove to her daughter's school, she thought about telling her she was expecting. She would find out eventually, her bump would grow and nine months from then a baby would be born, her brother or sister. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to let her know from the start, she would have more time to get used to the idea the earlier Chloe told her. She decided on telling her, finally feeling happy about something, about her little baby. The only thing that could make her feel happier was if Lucifer was sat on the driver's seat of her car, willing to be with her through it all.

"Hey, monkey," Chloe greeted her daughter, opening the right back door of the car so she could sit. "Buckle up, sweetie," Trixie did as she was told, leaving her bag on the other side of the backseat. "How was school?"

"Great, we learned a lot about the cycle of life and ecosystems. It was really, really cool," she said excitedly as Chloe sat on the driver's seat.

"I'm so glad to hear that, Monkey," Chloe said sweetly, starting the car and driving towards their home.

"Did you know that it's all a cycle? Every little thing helps!" She was speaking excitedly about the ecosystems. Chloe knew by now that biology classes were her favorite, she would always talk about them.

"I did know that, baby," Chloe answered, sneakily placing her left hand on top of her lower stomach. She couldn't wait to know what subject would be her little one's favorite.

"Mommy, can we go get some ice cream?" Trixie asked after a while, she knew they were close to their favorite ice cream shop and she knew it wouldn't hurt to ask.

"Sure!" Chloe deemed that moment as perfect to let on that they would talk about something important. "I have some news I'd like to tell you as well," she said, changing directions and driving towards her and Trixie's favorite ice cream shop instead of home. Chloe thought that however Trixie felt about the news, she would enjoy that ice cream either way.

"What is it, mommy?" She asked innocently but impatiently. Chloe had always loved that she had such a nice connection with her daughter, she knew they could talk about anything. She decided she would say it right then, she couldn't keep it in any longer.

"Well, today I found out something that will change our lives forever," she teased, turning right on a corner.

"What is it? What is it?" Trixie chanted excitedly, bumping her hands on her thighs to emphasize.

"Monkey, how do you feel about having a little brother or sister?" Chloe asked and saw through the rearview mirror how Trixie's face fell, suddenly losing all trace of emotion. She scowled slightly then, managing to not look disappointed.

"Are you...?" The child wondered, lowering her gaze to where Chloe's tummy would be if she was looking back at her.

"Yes, baby, I'm pregnant. I just found out a couple of hours ago," Chloe said and she definitely didn't expect the reaction she got. Trixie didn't say a word and all of a sudden the car was submerged into deep silence. Chloe couldn't read her daughter, she couldn't tell how Trixie felt about it. "What is it, baby? Are you not happy? Do you not want a sibling?" She pulled over right by the ice cream shop, unbuckling herself and turning around so she would face her daughter.

"I... I am confused," Trixie said simply, looking up at her mother with nothing but confusion in her face. Chloe felt a weight lift off her shoulders because at least she wasn't mad.

"About what?" Chloe asked, stroking her little girl's cheek. Trixie looked torn, not knowing if she should ask the question that was on her mind or not. "Come on, Trix, you know you can ask me anything. Okay, monkey?" The child nodded and blurted her question out.

"Well, you and daddy are divorced, right?" Chloe nodded, letting her daughter voice her doubts. "So, if you're not together anymore, then who's the baby's father? Are you and daddy together again?" She asked finally and Chloe couldn't help but feel proud of her girl, given that Trixie had come up with all those questions after knowing about Chloe's pregnancy for less than a minute.

"No, baby, daddy and I... We are not back together, we're just really good friends. Daddy isn't this baby's daddy. But... Who do you think it might be?" Trixie's face took less than a second to light up; she smiled even if she had tried to keep it in, which she did. Chloe smiled widely when she heard Trixie laugh. She was really trying not to react but she couldn't help it. "Come on! Who do you think it is?"

"Lucifer?" She asked, smiling big and toothy, making her mother smile like that as well. She was so proud of her smart baby girl.

"Yes, Trix. He is this baby's daddy," Chloe placed a hand on her flat stomach, getting into contact with the place that was growing a little being inside of her. "Such a smart girl, I love you so much," she leaned in and planted a kiss on the crown of her head, making the nine-year-old giggle.

"But mommy, were Lucifer and you dating?" Chloe smiled melancholically at that. How do you explain a child that you got pregnant after having sex once out of sadness?

"We... I guess we kind of were. But then he had to go and well..." she sighed, completely unable to avoid thinking of her love, of her baby's father. She gave her daughter a tiny smile, trying to reassure her somehow.

"Does Lucifer know about the baby?" She asked sweetly, unbuckling herself and opening the door from the inside.

"No, he doesn't," she said simply; smile falling from her face at the realization that he would never get to meet their child because he'd never come back. He'd never get to see what their love created, their own little miracle.

"And why don't you tell him?" She said, patiently waiting for her mom to get around the car.

"Don't you remember, baby? Where he is there are no cellphones or the internet. We can't reach him," Chloe explained again, much like she had the very first time that Trixie suggested calling Lucifer to check on him.

"Well, we can tell him when he comes back!" She said excitedly, just as Chloe swallowed a rapidly forming knot in her throat. If only he were coming back.

"Yes, we can, sweetie," Chloe placed her hand on her daughter's cheek, stroking her soft skin with the utmost care.

"Mommy, can I give the baby a hug and a kiss?" She couldn't help it but give her daughter a big and bright smile. She was so sweet, she still didn't understand what she had done to deserve her.

"Of course you can, sweetie," Chloe said as Trixie hugged her, placing her head on her stomach, a little bit higher above where the baby actually was. She giggled when her baby girl left a single kiss to the side of her flat stomach, making her feel giddy with happiness and pride. Trixie would be the best big sister.

They get an ice cream each and then they go for a walk in the park, spending a quiet and beautiful afternoon together. Trixie was over the moon with the idea of being a big sister, so she could only ask Chloe endless questions about her sibling, pregnancy, and the meaning of 'big-sisterhood', in her own words.

That night, when Trixie finally falls asleep, Chloe prays to the devil once again. She chooses not to tell him about her pregnancy, she feels like it wouldn't be appropriate to do so when he can only hear her, not respond -if everything Amenadiel told her was true-. That's the reason why she decides to just stick to the basics, telling him about her day, shedding a couple of tears and asking him to come back.

"I still love you, I still miss you," she said just as one of her hands found her way onto her flat belly, rubbing it softly with her fingers.

And if at that moment the devil hears a rapid flutter at the back of his head, well... No one would ever know.


	4. Chapter IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, sorry about the delay but things have been just hectic but to compensate, this chapter is 8k+ words, so... Enjoy
> 
> Also, sorry if this is a bit rushed or has any mistakes. I don't really feel like editing it right now and well, Grammarly has done the best that she could. 
> 
> Thank you for your beautiful and kind comments, they make my day and make me the happiest girl ever. You are all so sweet, damn, I wanna hug y'all so much.
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Chloe found out she was pregnant on a Tuesday's late morning, and up until Thursday evening, everything was perfect. She still felt like herself, her body was still hers, the only thing that would give away she was pregnant was that her breasts were a bit bigger and really tender, so much that the graze of her clothes' fabric would be uncomfortable. Other than that she was perfectly fine, up until that moment she felt okay, she felt like her usual self and would often forget she was even pregnant. When she wakes up on Friday morning with an upset stomach and has to run to the bathroom to throw up what was left of dinner, well... from then on she would be perfectly able to remember her condition. Ever since that moment, the only things she was able to keep down were water, plain crackers and yogurt, it seemed as if her body was finally catching up on the fact that she was expecting. Eating or even smelling anything other than that would make her horribly nauseous or make her throw up straight away.

She had chosen not to say a thing about her pregnancy to anyone, well, anyone but Dan. She had actually told her ex-husband the day after she told Trixie, thinking she would prefer to tell him herself instead of letting Trixie slip up. Having a daughter in common that was overexcited at the prospect of being a big sister was the main reason why she walked up to him and told him, barely being six weeks along. Of course, detective Espinoza wasn't too keen on the fact that Lucifer had gotten Chloe pregnant and ran away, still not believing the 'he had to go home, he had family issues' charade Chloe was selling. It worked with everyone else but him. Other than that, everyone else believed Lucifer had to leave, and no one would even guess Chloe was pregnant, much less with the devil's child.

Two weeks had gone by since she found out and she had almost got caught four times. Three of the times were in the presence of Ella, which made her wonder if she should maybe tell her as well. She had been about to do so when she remembered that Ella was easily persuaded with a latte with extra whipped cream and sprinkles, so she changed her mind. She really didn't want anyone to find out, she didn't want to risk the lieutenant putting her on desk duty before it was necessary. Besides, her only problem was that she had a very flimsy stomach that would turn inside out at the faintest scent, she could still work just fine.

Dan, surprisingly, had gotten into quite a protective role ever since he found out, even if he didn't like Lucifer a single bit and Chloe was his actual ex-wife. He just understood how important the baby was to Chloe, in the end, it wasn't only Lucifer's child. He would be the one helping her whenever her pregnancy symptoms got in the way during work, trying to make her feel better and more comfortable. He'd hand her water, force her to sit down and rest before continuing on a case, make her eat even if she didn't want to, make something up if she had to rush to the toilet to throw up. She was really thankful that he was being so attentive and helping her care for herself. He had even offered to go with her to the doctor for her appointments but she had declined, feeling that it was maybe far too much to have her ex-husband going to the ultrasounds with her.

Regarding the fact that her child was most likely a celestial being, well... she wasn't having much trouble with that. The only difference she could find between her current pregnancy and the one with Trixie was that she felt far more nauseous and was throwing up more often, maybe that she was already showing a tiny bit. She had a theory that maybe morning sickness was directly proportional to how celestial the baby inside of her was. She didn't remember feeling that way with Trixie, so nauseated to even think about food, besides, when she was pregnant with her it took a lot more time for her to show. 

She wasn't showing per se, she didn't have an actual bump since she was only eight weeks along, but she had a tiny curve to her stomach that hadn't been there a couple of days prior. It was only noticeable if she had her stomach bare and it was some time in the afternoon; the little bump would show as a tiny curve on the lower part of her belly. Her stomach would be as flat as a table during mornings, letting her be the only one who knew that something was blossoming inside of her.

That day had been a pretty normal one. Of course, the definition of 'normal' had changed over those past two weeks, given all the vomiting, nausea and coming to terms with having the devil's child while the devil himself was away. She was still getting used to it all, balancing her knowledge of the divine, with being a carrier of the divine and her detective work. If someone would ask, she would say she was doing a pretty good job while at it. They were working on a case that was involved with the Mexican drug cartel; a guy who had been murdered during an illegal drug operation.

"Hey, Chlo," Dan approached Chloe, who was on her desk and doing paperwork on the Cartel case. She looked up at him and scrunched up her face, directing her gaze to the paper cup Daniel had on his hand. She was feeling really sensitive towards smells lately, so Dan had to be really careful. "Oh, sorry," he took a couple of steps back, hoping it would be enough to make Chloe feel better.

"Hey! Sorry, it's just... coffee makes me," she made a disgusted face, hoping Dan would understand.

"I know, I know. It used to happen with Trixie, too," Chloe gave him a tight smile. If he only knew. "Anyway, any news on the case?"

"Kind of. I just... It's a hypothesis but what if there were other people involved? We found the imprint of the Mexican Cartel ring on our victim but the bullets they used to kill him were nine millimeters. The cartel uses custom made bullets and guns. This doesn't add up," Chloe explained, going over her case file and sighing when she couldn't find an explanation for that. "Maybe the guy had been in some kind of trouble with the cartel and they had roughed him up a little? Maybe that's why the imprint was on his leather jacket. I really don't know,"

"Yeah, or maybe they knew they were going to kill this guy so they used the most untraceable gun they could find," Dan suggested, looking over the file from afar.

"Still, it doesn't sound like them. Most of the people they kill are probably never found and those who are, they... They are proud of their kills, I really don't think they're behind this," Chloe reasoned, closing the case file and letting her head rest on her hands.

"Hey, hey, you gotta take care of yourself, don't let it get to your head," Dan advised, taking the last sip from his coffee and throwing the paper cup away so it wouldn't disturb Chloe.

"I know but it's just... It's so frustrating!" Those were the moments where she wished Lucifer would still be there... Well, at least the work-related moments she wished he was there. Some guy inside the cartel probably owed him a favor, it would be so easy getting information with someone like him working with them. She missed his cheeriness, his straightforwardness, his mojo. She missed all the little things that made him who he was the most.

"I know, Chlo. Hey, at least you get the rest of the day off. You can go home early and maybe get some rest," Dan suggested, clearly making a reference to her first doctor's appointment which was due in about an hour.

"No, I don't," she answered, remembering her appointment and picking up her things, trying to get ready to leave. "I can't say I went to the doctor's because they'll ask me why and I just... I don't want everyone to know just yet, so I'll have to come back,"

"Why are you insisting on that, Chloe? Am I really the only one who knows in the precinct?" Dan asked, taking a couple of steps back so he'd leave Chloe enough space to move around. She really liked her personal space.

"Yes. You, Trixie, Amenadiel, and Linda are the only ones who know. I'm not ready to have to explain myself to the rest," she picked up her purse, sliding it over her shoulder and closing one button on her long cardigan. She started to walk away towards the parking lot, knowing that Dan was following her.

"We really respect you, Chloe. You've been working here long enough for people to know that you like your privacy. I don't think they would ask too much,"

"Either way, I just... I really don't like to lie, and you're obviously not the baby's father so I'd have to tell them it's Lucifer and just... I'm not ready for all the comments on him going away and me being pregnant. People can be really noisy, especially here," she was telling the truth there, that was how she really felt about telling her workmates. People would get really noisy at the fact that Lucifer had casually left when Chloe had gotten pregnant with his baby, they would never leave the subject alone, that was for sure. "Let's just leave it, please,"

"Okay," Dan said, lifting up his hands in a sign of defeat. "Are you sure you don't want me to go with you to the doctor's appointment?" He asked once again, he had to try. Chloe had told him that she would rather go alone but he still insisted. Blame him but he didn't like the idea of Chloe having to go through such things without no one by her side.

"No, Dan," she said, getting to her car and opening the door on the driver's side. "Thanks, really, but it's not your place, I..." She stopped herself; the words ' _it's Lucifer's_ ' dangling off of her tongue. "I'd rather go alone,"

"Well, call me if anything happens, okay?" Chloe nodded, giving Dan a small but genuine smile before sitting on the driver's seat and closing the door, placing her purse on the passenger's seat.

"I will. Thanks, Dan!" She said, lowering the car window before she put the key into the ignition and drove off into the highway.

She was thankful that she had left with an hour to spare because traffic in Los Angeles, especially right after one pm, was a nightmare. She was stuck for twenty minutes in a traffic jam before she was able to finally drive off to the hospital.

She was nervous, really nervous. No one could deny the way her hands were shaking slightly, how her legs were wobbly. The only thing she could think about was the possibility of her baby looking anything other than what a normal, human baby would look. Well, that and the fact that so many things, terrible things, could happen during the first weeks of pregnancy. Linda had told her that everything would be fine, that even if she didn't get an ultrasound up until she was further along with Charlie, he still looked perfect, measuring and looking just like a human baby would. Chloe had thanked her for her words and support but she couldn't help it but feel uneasy, like something would be wrong or something would give away the fact that her baby was most likely not of this world. She wouldn't be able to live if something happened to it because she wasn't able to protect it like she has to. Besides, from what she had learned, maybe Charlie was far more human than they thought. Lucifer had never lost his 'celestialness' when Chloe got pregnant, so maybe that meant that her baby would behave differently than what Charlie did in the womb. There were just so many thoughts and theories going on inside her head.

Placing the palm on her hand on her lower stomach and taking a deep breath in, she closes the door of the car behind her, taking the first few steps towards the hospital. She was aware that she was running short of time and yet, she couldn't bring herself to walk faster. Something that had made her the detective she was, was her gut feeling, how instinctive she was regarding cases and right then, her gut was telling her something would be wrong. She would always listen to her gut, which was the reason why she made her walk towards the hospital's Labor and Delivery reception as slow as possible.

"Hello, I'm Chloe Decker. I... I'm here for a pregnancy check-up," she said to the receptionist, who looked at her with boredom.

"Sure," she typed her name on the computer, not even giving her a second glance. "A nurse will call you from door twenty-eight," she said dismissively, not giving Chloe enough time to even get her name. She probably hated her job.

"Thank you," Chloe said, remembering how her father had taught her that you had to have manners, even if those you interacted with didn't.

She walked towards the sitting area, a room that looked far nicer than the reception. She was in the labor and delivery ward of the hospital but not exactly where women gave birth, that part was a couple of hallways away. It made her nostalgic, given that she had done all her check-ups with Trixie in that same hospital and she remembered it as if it had been just yesterday. It didn't look like nine years had gone by, the place looked just as nice as it did back then. There were cushioned, grey armchairs for people to sit down, magazines to read, plants decorating the place. The walls were painted in a warm beige color, which made everything come together beautifully, making her feel cozy.

The only thing that prevented her from feeling calm was the fact that the closer she got to having her appointment, the tighter her gut would clench. She felt like something would be really wrong and she was desperate because she didn't know what it'd be, she didn't know what to expect. Besides, she was surrounded by really pregnant women, most of them with somebody by her side, looking happy and as carefree as someone could look. She was contrasting heavily with the atmosphere in the waiting room, she could tell.

"Chloe Decker?" She hears her name being called by a nurse, a tan, young guy dressed in light blue scrubs. She stands up, making eye contact with him and walking towards door twenty-eight.

"It's me," she says once she gets there. The nurse, named Adam, gives her a tiny but nice smile and lets her in, guiding her into a second room. It was really ironic that she was having the devil's child and a nurse named Adam was attending her. Adam, so biblical.

"Well, I'm Adam and this is Cheryl, nice to meet you," he smiles widely.

"The same I say," Chloe responds, unable to stop feeling uneasy. Adam and Cheryl seemed to be sweet people, their smiles were genuine and yet she couldn't understand why she didn't feel a little more at ease. Except for the girl at the front desk, everyone had been nice.

"Okay, so I will be taking all your stats: weight, height, blood pressure, etcetera, while Cheryl types them down and sends them to your doctor. Please, take your shoes off and step in here," he says nicely, pointing at the scale on her right side. She does as she is told, taking her heeled boots off and stepping on the scale, trying to keep her legs from shaking too much. "A hundred and fifteen pounds," he says as he measures her height on that same scale. "Five foot seven. Sit down on this chair, please," this time, the nurse directs his voice towards her. "Do you have any blood pressure problems? Any kind of chronic illness?"

"No," she says simply, handing out her right arm when she sees Adam reaching for the blood pressure monitor. The nurse places the arm belt on her arm and starts pumping air into it.

"What's the date of the first day of your last period?" He asks her, putting the buds of his stethoscope inside his ears.

"September 9th," Chloe hears Cheryl typing that in the computer before the entire room falls into silence, waiting for Adam to say what her blood pressure was.

"A hundred over sixty. Your blood pressure is quite low, have you been eating and sleeping well?"

"I've been sleeping well, eating... Not so much. I have trouble keeping it down," she explained herself, looking down as the nurse took the arm belt off of her.

"You have to tell that to your doctor, maybe he can prescribe you something to help manage nausea," Chloe nodded at him, pulling her sleeve down. "Lastly, I need you to give us a urine sample," he handed her a plastic cup. "Then you have to put this on and doctor Carter will see you down the hall in room one," he gave her a tightly packed hospital gown. "That's a bathroom there if you want to use it,"

"Thank you," she took both, the gown and the cup and made her way to the door the nurse pointed at, entering the bathroom and closing its door behind her back, exhaling loudly as she tried to calm down. "Calm down, Decker, everything will be just fine," she told herself, breathing in and out deeply.

She did as she was told, she peed in the cup, capped it and gave it to the nurse, leaving the examination room only after she had thanked the again. They had been really nice, even if she had only talked to them for barely five minutes. With her hospital gown in hand, she looked for the door with the number one on it, finding it and letting herself in without knocking.

The room was like any other obstetrician or gynecologist room. There was a small desk with a computer on it and three chairs, one for the doctor and the other two for the pregnant woman and her companion. Further away from the desk and the entrance there was a gurney with stirrups, a table with gynecological equipment, and right beside the bed a stool and an ultrasound machine. There was also a room divider so she could change into her hospital gown with a bit more privacy. She was really thankful for that.

Chloe couldn't help but feel even more uneasy. She was about to take a look at her baby for the very first time and instead of being happy or excited she was just worried that somehow somebody would find out. She really didn't know if her baby even looked human... Well, as human as it could possibly look. At eight weeks of pregnancy, the baby was about the size of a raspberry, that was what the app she had downloaded to track her pregnancy had told her. Logically, it was pretty difficult for any normal baby to even look human at that stage but she had learned not to underestimate divinity. Who knows what humanity would do if they found evidence of the divine? What would they do to her child if they found out he or she was not of this world? She really didn't want to find out.

With all that in mind, the stress and the nerves and just overall preoccupation, she stripped down completely, dressing with the awful hospital gown she was given and sitting on the gurney to wait for the doctor.

Just when she was about to let her brain and nerves get the best of her, a light knock on the door was heard. She couldn't help but feel surprised that the doctor had come in so quickly since it usually took them some time, at least until the urine pregnancy test was done. She said a simple 'come in' and just like that the door was opened.

"You're not Doctor Carter," was the first thing that Chloe noticed, as well as the first thing she said. Doctor Carter was the one to do all her pregnancy check-ups and the delivery with Trixie, she could say she knew what the man looked like.

"No, I'm not," the guy said with a smile; a thick British accent painting his voice. He had a really beautiful voice, it reminded her of Lucifer's. Somehow, the devil's voice was even prettier. "My name is Ansel, I... I'm an intern. Uh, doctor Carter sent me to do a palpation of the abdomen," he smiled again, looking young. He had really blue eyes, was really tall, really blonde and really muscular. Chloe would have thought he was good looking if not for the fact that her nerves had gone haywire. This was it, she would be seeing her baby really soon. "You're Chloe Decker, right?"

"I am," Chloe confirmed, taking a deep breath in as she lay down in the gurney, not putting her feet up the stirrups because she didn't deem it necessary. The intern, Ansel, approached the bed, standing opposite to the ultrasound machine. He went to touch Chloe's abdomen but Chloe stopped him right before he got the chance. "Aren't you gonna put some gloves on?" She asked him, looking at his bare hands and specifically the ring he had on his left ring finger. It was thick; a dark silver color surrounding a beautiful, rectangular, yellow gem. She felt like she had seen that kind of ring somewhere before.

"Oh, of course, silly me," he said, walking towards the wall where there was a glove dispenser. He pulled two out of his size and put them on, approaching Chloe again. Chloe could tell that Ansel saw her eyeing his ring and maybe he had felt judged or something because when he came back to her, his kind eyes were looking rather cold and hard. "Are you ready?" He asked her without smiling at her this time, looking painfully serious.

"Yeah, sure," she said, starting to not trust that guy so much. Why would a doctor flip from cheery to serious over a patient taking a look at their ring?

And right as Ansel was about to place his hands on her stomach, she remembered where she had seen such a gem before. A shiver ran down her spine and she couldn't help it but let her body tremble.

Lucifer's family ring, the one he always had on, was exactly like that, only that his gem was black.

She was far too late to make a comment about it, to even ask if they even knew each other, because the moment that Ansel put his hands on her stomach, his ring started shining in a bright yellow from underneath the latex gloves. He closed his eyes, putting barely any pressure on Chloe's stomach and letting the light on his ring shine brighter every second as if it were charging.

Chloe freaked out and tried to get herself out of the hold, out of his grasp, unable to take her eyes off of the covered gem. She felt like she was being weighed down, as if something were keeping her in place. When she tried moving, she felt as if she were paralyzed from the chest down, only able to move her arms. She tried pushing him off, tried moving, she even tried to cover her stomach with her own hands, putting them in between his. Needless to say, she was crying, begging for him to stop whatever it was he was doing. Up until that moment, she couldn't understand what the purpose of doing that to her was.

Then, as if a proverbial light bulb had lit on inside her head, she remembered her baby, her precious cargo, her little bundle of joy. Ansel wasn't trying to hurt her, he was trying to hurt her baby, an innocent baby. With that in mind, she started to fight harder, growing desperate by the second when she saw that all her struggles weren't enough to make the man even flinch.

"What are you doing?" She said in between tears, looking at how the gem in his ring finger was glowing even brighter. "Please, stop, please," she was crying so hard... All she wanted to do was keep her baby safe. "Don't hurt it, don't hurt it, please..."

"Finally..." He mumbled as he ignored all of Chloe's pleads, and Chloe started to feel as if someone was tickling her stomach; her feelings were completely detached from whatever it was that was happening to her baby. With teary eyes she took a look at her stomach, noticing how out of every pore in her skin, came a ray of pure and bright white light. She started to cry, even harder than before, to struggle even more. She just wanted to get away from all that, to keep her baby safe inside her womb.

Just when she was starting to think that maybe that was it, that her baby would never see the world, she heard the man, Ansel, gasp strongly, like all the air had been kicked out of him. He tried to take his hands off, to stop whatever it was that was happening but right then, the rays of light coming off of her stomach started wrapping around the man's wrist, crawling their way up towards his left arm, finally stopping at the height of his heart. They did so ever so slowly, under Chloe's dumbfounded face. She couldn't understand why the moment that the light got to his heart, she felt like she could breathe again.

Right then, during that small fraction of a second where Chloe didn't feel as afraid, the bright cords of light wrapped around his heart and shined the brightest, making his body start to fade out while he tried to scream, all in front of her eyes.

"What?" She said in a gasp, looking at how the man before her sprouted a pair of white wings out of his back, trying to fly off but being completely unable. It was as if he were tied to her stomach, as if he couldn't physically remove his left hand from it. Chloe could see how he was struggling, how he wanted to leave but couldn't, it was as if he were being attacked; his heart being squished tighter and tighter by the cords of light.

Chloe started to cry the hardest she had ever cried in her life. She couldn't understand what was happening before her, what was happening to her baby. The only thing that she could see was how the blonde man was vanishing into thin air, disappearing before her own eyes. She was pretty sure the room was completely silent, however, inside of her head, her screams could be heard alongside his, it was as if he were hurting far more than she was.

And then the moment came where everything fell silent. One second everything that was inside Chloe's head was screaming and pure agony, uncertainty as to what would happen to her baby; she could still see Ansel's body disappearing into nothing, vanishing into thin air. Then, on the next second, everything was back to normal, she was back to being all alone in the room once again. It was as if Ansel had never been there, as if no one had ever threatened her or her baby's life.

She resumed her crying silently, so afraid and scared that she couldn't stop shaking. She was pretty positive that her gut feeling had been about that, she somehow knew something bad would happen. She never imagined how bad it would be. If she was scared that her baby wouldn't look human before, well, now all she could think about was if it was alive or not. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she found out her baby had died because of what Ansel did to her, it would mean she was unable to protect it, she failed her own child.

She didn't know how much time it had passed since that man left, she couldn't even recall how long he was there for, she could only cry and feel scared. She would place her hand on her flat stomach and pray that everything would be just fine. However, the prayer that was coming off of her lips wasn't to the devil as usual, no. She was praying to god this time.

"Please, let it be okay, please," she begged as she cried, placing both of her hands on the lower part of her stomach, right on top of where her baby was. She stroked her skin over the hospital gown, hoping she would get a good sign but knowing that it was impossible. She was only eight weeks along, she wouldn't be able to feel her baby move. The only sign that could come was if she started bleeding and she could only be thankful that she hadn't. "Please, I... It's your fucking grandchild, have mercy," she was sobbing, holding on to hope when she heard a knock in the door. Instinctively, she held on tighter to her stomach, remembering what had happened the last time that someone had entered her room.

"Miss Decker? I'm Doctor Carter, may I come in?" She heard the doctor's voice, a voice she knew, and sighed in relief.

"Sure!" She said quickly, wiping the tears away from her face with her own hands. How she wished she had Lucifer to do that for her. In second thoughts, if Lucifer had been there in the first place maybe none of that would have happened and she wouldn't be crying.

"How are you feeling, Chloe?" Her doctor asked, walking over to her looking at the chart in his hands rather than his patient. Then he looked up and saw the remnants of her crying. "What happened, are you okay?"

"I..." she didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell him that an angel had come into her room and did something out of this world to her baby so she was afraid that it wouldn't be alive anymore. Although she believed it and would talk about it with Amenadiel, she couldn't just tell that to her doctor. "I fell," she improvised, placing a hand on her abdomen once again. "While I was changing into the gown, I... I fell a-and I hit my stomach... with the stirrup and I... I'm really worried about my baby,"

"Oh. How hard did you hit your stomach?" He asked her, approaching her quickly.

"Hard, really hard," Chloe explained, rubbing her stomach from side to side. "I... it doesn't hurt anymore, maybe it'll get bruised or something. I'm just scared that something happened to my baby," she was really proud of how she was handling the situation, even if she was freaked out of her mind about what had actually happened.

"Well, I wanted to discuss some things with you prior to doing the ultrasound but if you're so scared I guess we can start with that," doctor Carter said, trying to calm her down and reassure her. Chloe nodded her head, laying back against the gurney and trying to calm down, breathing in and out slowly. "Calm down, Chloe. Your baby is most likely fine, there's a lot of fluid surrounding it and layers of tissue. It would have been far worse if you were further along,"

"I know, I... Sorry, doctor," she apologized, trying to calm herself down and succeeding slightly. At least she had managed to stop sobbing.

"It's okay, it's normal to be worried, it's your child," he reassured her, smiling down at her and turning himself towards the ultrasound machine. "Put your legs on the stirrups, love," he instructed, pressing on some buttons and starting the machine. "Tell me about you, how are Daniel and Beatrice? How have you been?" He was really attentive and sweet, Chloe was thankful that he was the one to attend her current pregnancy as well.

"I... Trixie is nine years old now, which is just crazy," Chloe said, keeping her breathing pattern steady. "Dan and I got a divorce a couple of years ago but... we still work together and get on just fine,"

"Already nine years old?" Her doctor asked her, turning back towards her with the ultrasound wand on hand. "Seems like it was yesterday that she was born,"

"I know, you tell me that," Chloe managed to laugh a little, mentally thanking her doctor for trying to distract her. She really appreciated it.

"Now relax, Chloe. You know how this part goes," Chloe nodded and gave him a small noise of agreement, relaxing as much as she could so he could start with the ultrasound. Since she was so early on, the ultrasound had to be done transvaginally, that way they would be sure they would see everything going on with the baby and her womb. He started moving the wand slowly and carefully, trying to locate the baby. "And well, about your divorce... I know it must have been difficult but if it what makes you both the happiest and what's best for Trixie, then you made the right choice," she would never regret picking him as her doctor, he was the sweetest.

"I know, we're happier than we've ever been," and well, that was a lie. At least on her side of things. She had been missing her partner by her side for about two months then, she couldn't say she felt completely happy.

"There's your baby,"

When those words left the doctor's mouth, Chloe's immediate reaction was to turn her head towards the monitor. She did it so fast that she thought she heard her neck make a sound, she had to know if her little one was okay, if it was still alive after all that had happened. But then she saw the little blob that made her baby's body, happily floating inside its sac and she just couldn't help it but sigh in relief. She didn't need much more than that and she couldn't explain why but with that simple glance she could tell it was okay.

"Oh God," she couldn't help but look up, silently thanking her child's grandfather for hearing her, for making sure her little one was okay. "How's it looking? Is everything okay?" She asked rushedly, unable to tear her gaze from the screen. 

"Everything is looking perfect, Chloe. See that?" He pointed to one part of the little blob, circling it with his finger. Chloe nodded. "That's your baby's head, this right here is its body. It's still too little to tell but it's already developing arms and legs," Chloe let some tears fall once again, this time out of relief. Her baby was just fine, and what was best, her doctor wasn't making any comments on it looking anything other than what a normal baby would look like.

"I'm so glad," she said; relief painting her voice. "I'll have to be more careful," she said, thinking to herself that she had to tell Amenadiel everything that had happened and see if he could help her. Now that she had seen her child she was surer than ever that she wouldn't let anything happen to it.

"Yes, you should. See that flutter there?" He pointed at a small, round section on the baby's upper body that was flickering rapidly. "That's its heartbeat," he measured the heart and shortly after, a loud and rattling sound filled the room. Chloe's eyes filled up with tears even more. "One seventy-nine, pretty high but still in between what's normal," Chloe smiled stupidly, looking at the screen and how the lines on the doppler went up and down with every beat of her baby's heart. It was alive and she would never feel that kind of relief ever again in her life.

"I... since the first day of my last period I calculated that I'm about eight weeks along. Is it... has it been growing as it should?" She asked tentatively, still unable to break her gaze away from the monitor. Her little baby looked so perfect.

"I was just going to take its measurements but from what I've seen this kid is thriving!" Chloe let herself laugh a little, disturbing for one tiny second the image of the ultrasound. "Yeah, your baby is measuring about eight weeks, six days, a little bit ahead. The gestational sac is... about eight weeks, one day," the doctor said, looking intently at the screen and using the measuring tool of the machine to take all the measurements. "Normally I would be worried about such a difference this early on but your baby still has it's yolk sac attached, so I'd say it's just a little on the bigger side. Looks like you're just having a big baby here!"

"There's nothing wrong with it being on the bigger side, right?" Chloe asked worriedly, looking at how her doctor was taking all her baby's measurements again, placing her hands on her stomach and rubbing it softly. She was just so glad her little one was fine.

"As I said, the yolk sac measurements say that you're eight weeks, two days, which is about what the gestational sac is measuring. You've got nothing to worry about, this baby is just a little big," Doctor Carter giggled as he spoke to her, taking some screenshots of the baby at the same time.

"I'm so glad that everything is looking okay. Pretty average, right?" She felt like she needed that last bit of confirmation before she could finally feel safe. From what she could tell, her baby looked pretty much like Trixie had looked at eight weeks along, just a tiny bit bigger.

"Yeah, you have a healthy baby in there," Chloe smiled widely at those words, stroking the skin of her stomach over the hospital gown as her doctor pulled the wand out and turned off the ultrasound machine. "I'll leave you alone so you can change, all right?" She nodded, smiling softly still. She couldn't be more relieved even if she tried.

It was when the doctor had gone to the other side of the room, the one where the desk and chairs were, that she finally got her feet out of the stirrups and sat on the gurney, smiling as she placed both of her hands on her flat belly. Breathing felt easier now that she knew that nothing had happened to her little baby, and now that she knew that it looked just like any normal baby would, just on the bigger side. However, with such happiness and relief also came all the other awful emotions she was having. She couldn't help it but still feel scared, terrified that something would happen to her, that someone would ever try to hurt them again. She had a feeling that Ansel, particularly, wouldn't come back, that he was gone for good, but she still didn't know about all the other angels. She knew one of Lucifer and Amenadiel's sisters had come down looking for Charlie while Linda was pregnant, what if they also came for her baby? She couldn't think about anything else now that she knew her baby was all right.

With all those thoughts in mind, she dressed up in her clothes again, throwing the hospital gown into one of the paper baskets there was, and walked to the desk, sitting down on the opposite side. Doctor Carter was already on his chair and looking over all of Chloe's stats on his computer.

"Okay, so now we know everything is all right with your baby, but it's you I'm concerned about," the doctor expresses, printing out a sheet with what Chloe could guess were her stats and the report on her ultrasound.

"Why's that?" She asks, suddenly concerned. If her baby was alright but she wasn't, she was directly harming it. She couldn't and wouldn't let that happen.

"Normally we don't stress about weight gain during the first trimester of pregnancy. We'd like expecting women to stay at their normal weight or gain, we don't really look much into it. However, you've lost six pounds since your last medical check-up, which was less than three months ago," the doctor explained, handing over to Chloe a copy of her stats, the report on her ultrasound and a couple of pictures of her baby. "Six pounds is not much, but it's still weight loss during pregnancy, which is never good,"

"I see... Well, to be honest, I have been having trouble keeping food down as of lately," she explained herself, briefly looking over her baby's photos. "Maybe the last couple of weeks or so,"

"See? That's not something good. I will prescribe you prenatal vitamins and, if you want, I can prescribe you something to keep nausea at bay," her doctor offered, pulling out his prescription booklet and writing on it the name of the vitamins.

"That would be lovely, thank you," she thanked him, taking her baby's pictures in her hands. It looked like a very tiny and very beautiful blob, and she already loved it so much. She watched her doctor write down the prescription notes and then took them into her hands once he handed them over.

"So, is your choice of career still the same?" He asks, turning himself towards the computer. "Still a police officer?"

"Homicide detective, actually," she corrects him, placing her hands on her lap, expecting all the questions. she had to do that when she was pregnant with Trixie, too.

"Quite a dangerous job. I would suggest starting on desk duty eventually, maybe after weeks twenty-seven or twenty-eight, whatever you can agree on with your boss," he recommends, typing down her job on his computer. "What's your support system?"

"Uhm... I guess my friends. My mom is all the family I have left but I'm not too close to her so I guess she doesn't count," Chloe sighs, thinking about her mother. It had been a while since she last saw her, easily two years.

"Your baby's father?" The doctor wonders, looking back at her instead of the monitor.

"He... he had to go back to his home town, which... it's very far away from LA. I really don't think he'll be able to come back, I didn't even get to tell him I was pregnant," she says rather quickly, trying to avoid all the Lucifer talk. She was getting quite used to seeking the 'he had to go back home' charade.

"I see, so only friends?" Chloe nods at his question, playing with her own hands on her lap. "Do you have any idea of what you want for your birth plan?"

"I don't, actually. I thought I had more time to decide,"

"Yes, you do, but it'd be very useful if you already had an idea. Whenever it is that you do you have to tell us. We can discuss it in either of our following appointments," Chloe nods again, not wanting to talk much.

"Anything else?" She asks, wanting to leave already. Hospitals made her feel more tired than usual.

"No, actually. Your urine pregnancy test came back positive, as we both know. Your blood pressure is on the lower side but that can be attributed to your lack of appetite, which reminds me," he stops himself, pulling his briefcase up on his lap and browsing for something. He then later pulls out a brochure and hands it over to her. "You have to maintain a balanced diet all throughout your pregnancy, there's information about everything you should eat and what you can't, so read it carefully,"

"Thank you so much. I could really use some help in eating anything other than plain crackers and yogurt," Doctor Carter giggles a little at that, handing her over more brochures about infant care and what to expect from pregnancy. He knew she had a child already, but the information could always come in handy. "I was wondering, did you get a due date with the ultrasound and all?" Chloe wonders, putting away all her pamphlets and her ultrasound report inside a plastic envelope.

"Of course, silly me, how could I forget?" He laughs a little. "Your due date is June 15th, 2020,"

"Again, Doctor Carter, thank you so much. When do I have to be back?" Chloe asks, standing up as she put her envelope inside her purse.

"I'd like to see you when you get to about twelve to thirteen weeks along if that's possible,"

"Sure it is. So, until then, doctor," the man waved his hand as a way to say goodbye and Chloe took that as a cue to leave the man's office.

So much had happened in that last hour. So many things that she couldn't explain, feelings that she couldn't explain. For one, she and her baby almost got killed by that Ansel guy, who she now knew was an angel, so he was most certainly Amenadiel and Lucifer's brother. She had felt so scared at that moment, but then she saw her baby on the screen, saw that he or she was all right and unharmed, then she felt like she could finally breathe again.

She couldn't find a way to logically explain what had happened there, but again, it was something divinity related so she wouldn't be able to put much human logic into that. What she did understand, eventually, was that what Ansel had tried to do was sort of steal energy away from her child, to rob it from something it possessed, something dare she say, magical. She remembered the cords of light, how they came _from_ her stomach, how they wrapped around the angel's heart and squeezed it until he vanished. Her baby had defended itself, he or she had protected itself and Chloe from whatever it was that the angel wanted to do to them. That, in itself, made Chloe feel even more scared. If the child she had inside of her had been able to do such things, the question now would be: _how_ _powerful_ _is it_ _going_ _to be?_

She went back to work after her appointment, just like she had said she would, only that she was unable to do much. There were so many questions and theories going on inside her head. She just couldn't believe how something so small, something that was inside of her had managed to take down a fully grown angel, all from inside the womb.

She contacted Amenadiel later and told him everything that had happened. Of course, the angel freaked out and offered to go to her but Chloe politely refused. Later on, when she got the angel to calm down, all that was left inside of him was sadness and disbelief. Amenadiel couldn't believe how his own brother would do something like that, how he would try to hurt his own blood. Amenadiel didn't know why Ansel had done such a thing but after he ceased his crying he promised Chloe that everything would be just fine, that he would fly up to heaven and find out why his brother would do that.

Chloe gets home late that night, around quarter to ten pm. She had wanted to get home in time to read Trixie her bedtime story and show her the pictures of her baby brother or sister, but by the time she parked her car in front of her home, she already knew the girl would be fast asleep. She had got caught up with the case, getting inspired and working late to try and solve it. She did find some more circumstantial evidence, which had to be great.

She, tiredly, opened her car door and stepped out of it, walking up the few steps into her home. She felt exhausted, drained from all energy, and sue her but she had had a pretty rough day. She put her key on the lock, twisting it to the side and opening the door, with her mind far too busy. She was thinking about paying Olga for the extra hours she had to be there, about what she was going to have for dinner, about anything and everything that didn't have to do with the fact that she was pregnant with the devil's child. She was so distracted that it took her a long time to find out that there was someone inside her house, that someone had snicked in.

"Hello, Chloe," and when she hears his voice, she can't help but feel a shiver run down her spine.


	5. Chapter V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you sweet, beautiful people! Again, sorry for the delay but today was my first day of uni and I'm just completely drained of all energy. 
> 
> Guys, can I ask... HOW TF ARE WE AT ALMOST 2500 HITS?? You really are unbelievable, thank you so, soooooo much. You make me the happiest girl in the world, I swear. 
> 
> Keep it up with your comments and kudos, they really make my day. You're so sweet, I love you so much. 
> 
> All my love, Rena.

_It was warm down there, really warm, as it had always been. Ash fell upon his shoulders, the sounds of chains and screaming filled the place, the doors looked all the same. Nothing had changed, nothing could ever change. It was so dark that he thought he would never see light ever again, so loud that he thought he would never hear a whisper again, so horrible that he thought he would never be able to smile again._

_He had lost touch with himself, with the man he had become. He felt as if his seven years on earth had never happened, like all that he was now was all that he had always been in the past. He struggled with the image of himself every single time he saw his reflection on the mirror, unable to put into words how he felt, what being back in Hell made him feel._

_Those had been the longest eighty years of his life._

_They had been the longest because he knew he wasn't whole, he knew there was a part of himself that had remained on Earth, that kept on living without him. He felt selfish every single time the thought did as much as cross his head, but he hoped that she had been suffering and aching just as much as he had. He wanted to know if she had been as miserable as he had because if she had, then it would mean that their last night together wasn't a lie. He needed reassurance somehow because how could someone just love the devil? A human that a couple of months ago thought he was crazy, that thought it was all a metaphor, how could she, out of all humans, love him? She chose to love him._

_Five hundred and twenty-two days had to go by. Five hundred and twenty-two days of suffering, of loneliness, of pure and sick torture, had to go by before he could hear from her. And when he did, he didn't know what to do. He thought that maybe Amenadiel would pop down to Hell once or twice a year to update him on what he left behind, on the people he loved so much. However, when he hears her voice instead of that of his brother's... needless to say, a shiver runs down his spine. Her voice had been like a glass of cold, fresh water in the middle of the desert, allowing him to feel again, to escape the dullness and sick torture of Hell._

_He never imagined that she would pray to him, that she would voice her feelings towards him, that he would hear her cry inside his mind. That had been one of the most painful yet beautiful things he ever had to endure, feeling her pain as if it were his own. She sounded so broken, so desperate, she missed him so much, but moreover, she still loved him as much as the day he left._

_He allowed himself to cry when Chloe's sweet and broken voice could no longer be heard inside his head. He had finally gotten that confirmation, the certainty that, indeed, Chloe missed him just as much, and that her life on Earth was just as hard without him as his life was in Hell without her. He just cried, scared that his memories with her would just start to fade away, that he would no longer remember their special moments, their 'greatest hits' as he had once named them. He was scared that everything that had made them 'Lucifer & Chloe' would someday just disappear. _

_He patiently waited for another prayer, waited for her to talk to him again, to voice her emotions. How disappointed he was when days, then weeks, and ultimately more than a year went by before he heard of her again. It had been roughly about the same time, five hundred and something days. It had to happen again for him to realize that it was a pattern and after he understood that, he made it the norm that no one could bother him during those days where he was expecting her prayer. It was something too precious and beautiful for him to miss, much less for him not to pay enough attention to._

_During those eighty years that went by, all the devil had to look forward to was hearing the voice of his lover once every year and a half. He had no other purpose than that, no other motivation that would keep him going. Just the mere image of his detective was enough for him to try and be strong when in reality, he could feel himself falling apart. He couldn't help it but miss her deeply._

_However, the day came where the devil woke up expecting an awfully routinary and boring day and ended up being surprised. For the first time in millennia, someone had managed to surprise the devil with something he most certainly did not expect._

_"My Lord, someone has come to see you," a demon intercepted him as he made his way towards his throne. Taking a look at his face was enough to let you know that he wasn't in a good mood._

_However, although he was in a bad mood, he snorted and laughed at the statement the demon had presented._

_"I find that quite hard to believe. Don't you have anywhere else to be? Like, maybe doing your job or just... not bothering me?" The devil asks, walking away from the demon and ignoring it._

_"Sir, I'm being serious. There's someone waiting for you up by the vestibule," the demon insists, picking up his pace to walk closer to Lucifer._

_"Who is it, then?" The raven-haired devil asks, letting on the fact that he is annoyed._

_"I... I don't know. I've never seen him before,"_

_"That's weird," he reckons, given the fact that the only people who could pop down to hell for a visit were his siblings, and all the demons knew all his siblings._

_"Sir, do you want me to go with you?" The demon in question, Beleth, offers, stopping as the devil stops before him and looking down to the ground. Ever since he had come back things had changed drastically, everything had to be done seriously and neither of them had been able to go back to the close relationship they used to have with their master._

_"Did I ask?" Beleth shook his head, looking at his own feet. "Then go back to popping out eyeballs or something," he really wasn't in the mood for talking, much less with any of his siblings or whoever it was that was awaiting him._

_"Yes, my Lord," the demon gives the devil a small bow out of respect and leaves right towards where he came from._

_When the demon leaves, the devil unfurls his wings. It was nearing day five hundred, which meant that he would already be out for the month. Only once had Chloe prayed before day five hundred and Lucifer would never be able to forgive himself for almost missing it, he would not take any chances. He really did not want to talk to anybody, much less now. Ever since that time he had been paranoid that he would miss the beautiful voice of his lover again._

_He took flight, heading towards the entrance of Hell; a big, light-grey hole in their sky that connected hell with its vestibule. That was as far as demons could ever go, doomed souls would stay inside their rooms, submerging themselves into self-inflicted, guilt fueled hell loops. Any celestial that entered Hell, though, was free to get in and out of it._

_The devil landed on his two feet, taking a look around the vestibule with wary and round eyes. It was really rare for one of his siblings to go down to Hell to pay him a visit, so much that he would dare say it happened once every millennia or even less. It was much weirder the fact that Beleth had not recognized who the person visiting him was. He was not taking chances._

_The vestibule was shaped like a pentagon with its five walls covered in red velvet. It had some archaic decorations where the walls met the black ceiling; some biblical and horrific figures painted in golden. Lucifer hated them; if he could change them he would. Its floors were made of white marble and there was only one door in since, well, getting out of hell if you deserved to be there, even as a celestial, could be pretty rough._

_Lucifer heard someone cough from behind him and immediately turned around, wanting to see who was trying to talk to him. When he did, he found himself standing in front of a man he had never seen, but looked disturbingly similar to what Amenadiel would look like if angels aged. He gave him a confused scowl._

_"Hello, how can I help you?" He voiced, putting his hands on the pockets of his trousers and trying to look confident. The man sighed._

_"Hello, son," he said, leaving Lucifer with his mouth wide open. He would be able to recognize that voice anywhere, even if it was one of the ones he heard the least._

_His father, of all people, had popped down to hell to pay him, the rebellious child, a visit? It was a first, mostly because, well, Lucifer had never seen his father resemble a human ever before but even_ _worse_ _, Lucifer had never been the direct receiver of his words, never the one spoken to. And he had been alive ever since the beginning of time. Everything, the fact that his father was standing right before him, was definitely hard to believe, but he didn't have any other choice than to do so because of stupid celestial rules. That man_ _wasn't_ _one of his siblings, so if it wasn't his father, then who else could it be?_

 _"This' got to be a joke," he said, laughing like he does every_ _time_ _he tells an out of place joke and gets away with it._ _Sadly_ _, there_ _hadn't_ _been much of that lately. "Is it? Because if it's not a joke, then I_ _don't_ _know what else to believe,"_

_"It is not a joke," the old man expressed, looking at his son right in the eyes. "I really am here,"_

_"You son of a bitch," and with those five little words, the devil stuck a right hook to God's face. It was as if he had hit any of his siblings; they would react to it,_ _I_ _would hurt them. How much Lucifer hoped it_ _did_ _hurt him._

 _"I deserve that," God_ _stated_ _, standing straight and holding onto his left cheek. Other than that, the creator of the universe didn't react, in fact, the devil was sure that if he hit him again he would just take it._

 _"Yes, you do!" Lucifer went to take a shot at him again, closing_ _his_ _right fist tightly before swinging his arm backward._

_"But please, I wish that you would hear me," he asks, stepping back a little and missing the devil's angry fist by less than an inch._

_"Well, would that or would that not be a first?!" Lucifer said ironically, actually laughing. Meeting_ _his_ _father for_ _essentially_ _the_ _first time in his life was by far_ _the_ _last thing he needed right then. "You've never been_ _interested_ _in meeting your children, what's gotten into you?"_

 _"And that is a thing I painfully regret. I am aware that our life and humanity, we... all of us_ _would_ _have had it easier if I had voiced what I wanted," God, in his physical form, starts pacing around in the room, showing no emotion whatsoever in his face. Lucifer couldn't read_ _him_ _and it was_ _driving_ _him insane. He couldn't glimpse his intentions._

 _"If you're trying to mend your mistakes starting with me, let me tell you you're making a big mistake," Lucifer says, so ready to unfurl his wings and fly back to his throne, to let time wash over this so he would eventually_ _forget_ _. "You_ _banished_ _me here so you could get rid of me! Sorry if I can't understand the reasoning behind you visiting,"_

 _"I... I am trying to mend things. And... I am able to realize that I have been unfair in a great number of occasions," God admits, slowing down his pacing around and looking_ _back_ _at his son._

 _"I'm afraid it's too late,"_ _Lucifer_ _turns his_ _back_ _towards him, staring at the black door and_ _suppressing_ _his instincts of just flying away. "You broke me, you_ _vilified_ _me, you turned me into a monster! And all that for what? Talking to my siblings about some ideas I had? Trying to make a change?"_

 _"Now I realize I was too harsh on you. You did not deserve the punishment you got, you still don't," God_ _tries_ _to_ _approach_ _his son but_ _Lucifer_ _feels him, which makes him walk away. He really doesn't want to be having that conversation. "I hope you can forgive me one day, but I know it will probably not happen,"_

 _"That we can agree on," Lucifer scoffs, wishing he had a cigarette he could light up and smoke, wishing he had anything on himself that would help him distract from what was happening. He sighs, running his hand through his dark hair. "Why did you come down here? What_ _selfish_ _, denigrating motive do you have that made you come down to Hell on the flesh, uh? I find it quite hard to believe that you came all the way here for something so insignificant," he sighs again, trying to not get overpowered by his emotions. "Which, by the way, and in case you didn't catch it,_ _I_ _don't forgive you now, nor will I ever do so,"_

 _"I wanted_ _to_ _mend things with you, but... yes, you're right, I did come down to Hell for something else," Lucifer smirks the way that_ _he_ _does when he is_ _angry_ _. Truth to be told,_ _that_ _is the worst kind of smile to be seen on the devil's face._

 _"I knew it. You're as much of a piece of_ _garbage_ _as the next_ _chap_ _," he_ _stated_ _, turning around again to avoid facing his father. He was debating with himself, he_ _didn't_ _know if he wanted to know about his father's ulterior motives or not._

 _"Your brother, Ansel, has_ _committed_ _something terrible, truly awful," God starts, ignoring completely Lucifer's harsh comment. They both knew he_ _deserved_ _it. "He deserves punishment for what he did, here, in Hell,"_

_"I don't know, and I don't care, father," Lucifer says, still not turning around, starting to pace around in the room. He really wanted to leave. "But, let me tell you the truth. You're not as good at punishing people as you think you are,"_

_"That is one of the reasons I wanted to speak with you as well since you are good at punishing people,"_ _God_ _clasps his own hands together, walking inside the vestibule up until he is standing before his rebellious son. "He threatened_ _the_ _life of an unborn child out of greed,"_

 _"Oh, how awful," he_ _speaks_ _with_ _pure sarcasm and irony in his voice, putting a hand on his chest and emphasizing how much he doesn't care. "What are you going to do now, huh? Create a whole new dimension where... I_ _don't_ _know, all the_ _souls_ _that behave badly in Hell have to go there and be punished even more? Only to put him as king of that? Your punishments are getting old. Besides, it's pretty hard to get much lower than where we_ _are_ _,"_

_"I was thinking about... Something different," God suggests, sighing at Lucifer's choice of words and straightforwardness._

_"Speak, father! Bless me with your expertise!" He teased, smiling smugly at each and every time he saw his father flinch or scowl at how he was speaking to him. Poor God, he was so busy being worshipped throughout all of eternity that he forgot to learn how to take some ugly words like a big boy._

_"I would absolve you from ruling Hell and... put Ansel on that spot,"_

_When Lucifer hears those words leave his father's mouth, he walks the few steps in between them and looks at him from above, looking as threatening as ever._

_"No, you will not," he spoke with his voice low and firm, letting on slight undertones_ _of_ _his devil voice mix in. He was really mad. "Not in my Hell, you will not do that to anybody again," he was never close to Ansel, the age gap between them was really wide, but he wouldn't let his father punish his brother over one human life._

_"What he did was really serious, he tried to kill an unborn child, a completely defenseless creature," God tried to reason, standing firmly on his two feet and talking back to his son._

_"No, it was not. You will not do that to my brother because of one tiny, insignificant human life," and right then, Lucifer feels as if a bucket of ice-cold water fell upon him. He gets hit with the_ _realization_ _that, of course, his father is doing it again, hand-picking_ _humans_ _and using them to manipulate his family. "Oh, I get it now. You're back to the old ways. What? Were thirty-five years of not hand-picking humans to_ _manipulate_ _us too much?"_

_"He went against my will!" God snaps, hitting his fists against the velvet walls of the vestibule._

_"But so did I!" Lucifer responds in equal measure; his devil voice filtering through his words._

_"It is different, those are different situations,"_

_"Oh, but are they?! I went against your will as well, I tried to make a change in Heaven against your wishes_ _and_ _you banished me to Hell to rule for all eternity. Ansel tries to kill someone you put on earth because_ _of_ _a probably stupid, useless, selfish reason and he too goes_ _against_ _your wishes," Lucifer reasons, rising his voice up even more. "We both have to be punished... under your logic, everything that does just as much as threaten your ego must be punished with damnation. Tell me, are you that insecure?"_

 _"I know you had a life on earth. I_ _know_ _all of it. That you worked with the LAPD, your ownership of Lux, everything," God avoids all of Lucifer's words, ignores them in favor of speaking his truth and trying to convince his son. "I_ _know_ _that you fell in love with Chloe," Lucifer's eyes grow even darker than_ _their_ _normal black. He really does not want to hear God talk of his_ _love_ _, of Chloe, he has no right._

 _"Careful, father," he warns, letting his eyes flash red for just one second. God_ _doesn't_ _even flinch. "You already tried to take her away from me and you saw how that ended up, uh? We don't want that to happen again, do we?"_

 _"And_ _yet_ _, with all I have done to bring you two together, you are the one to push her away. After all, you are here and she is not," God speaks, and he hits a nerve._

 _"With all that you've done?! You made her, you forced her to love me, you didn't give her a choice!" Lucifer grows angrier by the_ _second_ _, his emotions are growing exponentially._

 _"I did not take her choice away. All I did was predispose her to grow feelings towards you. I gave you a choice. You were able to choose, and you did. You chose to love her,_ _you_ _chose to have her in your life and that is why she chose you back," Lucifer grunts, punching the wall with all the angelic strength he_ _has_ _, not making even a little dent._

 _"You used her. You used her to manipulate me, to keep punishing me, to... to mess with my head!" The devil_ _yells_ _, turning around to face his father._

 _"Son, at the end of the day, is it not important the fact that you love each other? That you have been eighty_ _years_ _without her?" God tries, lowering his voice and making it softer._

 _"_ _I've_ _been eighty years without her because of you!_ _Because_ _I had to come_ _back_ _so demons_ _wouldn't_ _roam the earth. I did it to protect her!" He bites_ _back_ _his_ _tears_ _swallowing the knot down his throat and breathing in deeply. He will not cry in front of his father._

 _"And what would you say if I told you that you can go back? Let Ansel take over and you can have your life back. Up on earth, it has only been two months since you left," the almighty insists, approaching his son_ _carefully_ _. Lucifer, who was looking down at the floor in deep concentration, lifts_ _up_ _his gaze to meet the one of his dad._

 _"Who is this child? Whose life did Ansel threaten? Who are_ _you_ _trying to manipulate with it?" The devil asks, feeling spent and actually thinking about what his father was_ _offering_ _him._

 _"I am afraid_ _I_ _cannot_ _tell you that. It is not my place," God answers, getting once again_ _another_ _punch to the wall from his son._

 _"Why can't you just be honest for once?" Lucifer wonders, unable_ _to_ _stop_ _his eyes from filling_ _up_ _with_ _tears. He was so done, he_ _wanted_ _to leave, to have Chloe wrap her arms around him and_ _whisper_ _in her ear that everything would be okay._

 _"Fate will tell you in due time," is God's answer, which he voices as he steps closer to his son and places a hand on his shoulder, trying to offer physical_ _support_ _at the very least. It was the first time father and son ever had physical contact and surprisingly, Lucifer doesn't flinch or move away from the touch._

 _They stay in silence for a while, just letting the_ _connection_ _between hand and_ _shoulder_ _be the thing that grounds them. Lucifer uses that time to go over his_ _options_ _, to think about what is best. He misses Chloe and his life on earth like a mad man, he is in his own hell loop by being back. He_ _can't_ _help but_ _wonder_ _what_ _Chloe's voice sounds like, having forgotten about it over the years. Now the only_ _reminder_ _of it is when she prays and he hears her at the back of his head. He had taken for granted seeing her every day_ _because_ _now the memory of her face was extremely blurry, like a_ _photo_ _that fades away with time. He missed Linda, Ella... Ameandiel and Dan, even. He wonders where Maze is, what happened to Eve, he misses his friends, the people that made him become the person he was now._

 _With all that in mind, he takes a_ _shaky_ _, deep breath in, looking back to his father._

 _"You give me your word that I will get my life back?" God nods at that, stroking lightly his son's shoulder. Lucifer sighs loudly, finally_ _making_ _his choice. "Okay, Ansel can rule now, but under some conditions," he_ _stated_ _, trying_ _to_ _get his strong and firm voice back._

 _"Anything you want," the almighty smiles at his son, letting Lucifer feel his warmth for the very first time. However, the devil doesn't get caught_ _up_ _in such things, suddenly feeling desperate and wanting to leave._

 _"You do not get to mess again with me, or my_ _identity_ _. I am still Lucifer_ _Morningstar_ _, the devil, and everything will still be the same on that part. Not because_ _Ansel_ _is taking over means that I am no longer the man I have been ever since you vanished me," Lucifer stands up_ _straighter_ _, being_ _finally_ _able to look and feel sterner._

 _"I give you my word," Lucifer forces a tight smile to leave his lips,_ _finally_ _moving away from the resting palm on his_ _shoulder_ _._

_"And I want you to change some things, too," the devil explains, walking away towards the door and letting his fingers linger on the handle. He would be free, and it would be soon._

_"Whatever you wish," God says but_ _doesn't_ _follow_ _hi_ _m,_ _he gives the devil his_ _space._

 _"I want Hell's construction to be changed. I want it to be so that the celestial who is ruling can't leave under any_ _circumstances_ _unless there is another celestial in here. That way there will always be an angel looking_ _over_ _it," God nods, actually thinking that_ _it is_ _a good and_ _reasonable_ _idea. "And I want you to stop manipulating me and or interfering with my life in any way,"_

 _"Consider it done, both things," God_ _approaches_ _his son, letting_ _himself_ _stand beside him in front of the door. "And again, I hope you can_ _forgive_ _me someday... for manipulating you_ _and_ _overreacting, back when you were in the Silver City," Lucifer murmurs something under his breath, sighing eventually and turning to his side so he can face his father._

 _"I really don't think I can, and I think we're_ _dragging_ _this longer than we should..."_ _Lucifer_ _sighs, taking one_ _last_ _look at his father's materialized form. "Goodbye, Dad, see you never,"_

 _As_ _Lucifer_ _stretches his hand_ _to_ _wrap around the doorknob, he thinks about all of the things he will be able to do_ _again_ _, all the life he is going to get back. He thinks about Chloe, wonders if she would be willing to give him a chance, if she would be willing to give them a chance. He now realizes he_ _would_ _do anything for her, he would give up anything and everything just so he could see her_ _happy_ _, and if that_ _doesn't_ _mean something, if that_ _isn't_ _meaningful_ _, then no one knows what it is. He loves her, and he can no longer deny that fact, nor does he want to._

_"Son, wait—"_

——————

When the devil lands on earth, he does so in the balcony of his penthouse. It was only logical that a celestial would arrive in earth in the exact same spot they left the last time, and since he left from the balcony, well, he reappeared in the balcony. He takes a deep breath in the second his feet touch solid ground, rejoicing in the fact that he was breathing pure air for the first time in eighty years. Well, as pure as air in Los Angeles could ever be.

When he puts his wings away, the very first thing he does is check his watch. Having been in Hell for that long made him feel disoriented as to what time it was and he sighs out of relief that it's still early, about half-past eight o'clock.

Stepping into his penthouse makes him feel nostalgic, like a wave of memories and emotions sweeps right through his mind as he makes his way towards his bedroom. Up on earth, it had only been two months since he left, but in Hell, it had been eighty years. Eighty long, tortuous, dreaded years where he was miserable over anything else. His last night with his detective had been eighty years ago for him, the last time he ever saw his brother, his nephew, his friends, had been almost a century ago.

He had imagined everything to be covered with white sheets, the floors covered with dust, spiderwebs everywhere. He had imagined it to be abandoned, lonely, barely hanging on to the traces left of all that had once happened there. All the fun, the parties, the excitement, but also all the love and the meaningful moments that had taken place there were rapidly going through his head as he took a look at the place that had been his home for the seven years he was on earth.

And, against all expectations, his penthouse had been left untouched; everything was in the exact same spot as the last time he had been there.

He went up a couple of steps that divided the living room from his bedroom and took a look at the bed. The bedsheets still had the exact same wrinkles as the last time he used it, the pillows were in the exact same place. He smiled melancholically, thinking of Chloe making an effort to keep everything looking the same before she left so the reminders of their night would prove that it actually happened. He disturbed that chaotic order, though, grabbing the pillow Chloe had used and pulling it closer to his chest, trying to see if it would smell of her. Of course, it didn't. It had been two months since that night, and Chloe had slept there for one night only, it would be pretty hard for the silk fibers to pick up her scent.

He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all thought as he made his way towards the bathroom, set on taking a shower. Being in Hell for eighty years must mean he smelled a lot like ash and brimstone, and he actually felt sad that he had gotten so used to the smell that he could barely perceive it on himself anymore.

After he showered, making sure he scrubbed every inch of his skin, he made his way to his closet, looking for a suit to wear. That was when he noticed that one of his plain white dressing shirts was missing from his rack. The devil was really cautious of his belongings, and when he counted nine white shirts instead of ten, a small and soft smile crept up his face. After that he couldn't avoid smiling as he got dressed, thinking of his detective sporting one of his shirts to feel him close by. How he wished he had had something of hers during all those years in Hell.

Once he deemed himself presentable, he rushed to his elevator with the Corvette's keys in hand, having a really clear and specific destination in mind: his detective's place. He needed to see her, to hold her, to hear her voice, to smell her scent again so he could make sure he would never forget it or her, for that matter.

He had never driven so fast and recklessly in his entire life. He drove past at least two red lights, thing he had never done in the past, making it to Chloe's house barely half an hour after landing on earth.

He didn't know what he expected, what he wanted to happen, what he would say to her. He imagined that she would open the door, see him there and run into his arms, maybe cry a little bit (on both sides, who was he kidding?), and from then on they would work towards a future together, a long, happy and healthy human lifetime. Well, at least that was what the utopia inside his mind was telling him.

He did not expect what happened, though. He knocked on the door and was greeted by no other than Trixie's nanny, Olga. She opened the door and looked at him with her usual resting bitch face, trying to decipher what he was doing there.

"Hello, I was wondering if detective Decker was home?" He says charmingly, resting all of his weight on his right leg as she looks into his eyes, completely unamused.

"Chloe no here. She working," Lucifer hears Olga talk in her very poor English and scowls a little, not having considered the fact that Chloe might not be home.

"Oh, so, you're looking after the spawn, am I right?" Olga just looks at him like she wants to bury him alive. That woman had to be the first one since Chloe that did not react to his charms as he would expect.

"Trixie sleeping," Olga says, shushing Lucifer.

"Well, you can leave now. I can take care of the little urchin until the detective arrives," he says, hoping it would be enough for Olga to understand that she is dismissed. She only looks at him more seriously. Lucifer scoffs. "I am a... friend of Chloe's. I can look after the child until she arrives," he can't help but feel his chest tightening a little at the word 'friend'.

When Olga still looks at him like she wants to murder him, he puts his hand on the inner pocket of his suit and pulls out a one hundred dollar bill. He folds it and places it on the chest pocket of Olga's ugly cardigan and only then he sees the woman smile. She enters the house, grabs her bag and gives Lucifer another smile before walking down the steps from Chloe's apartment without saying a word. That woman was weird, Lucifer would for sure not hire her if he had little spawns of his own. He laughed at his own thought, at the image of himself with children around. That would definitely never happen.

Smiling at himself, he steps inside Chloe's home and closes the door behind him, taking in the familiar scent of her place and learning it all over again. He just missed her so much, he hoped she would get home soon but knowing her, she must probably be working her ass off at the precinct.

He sat down on her couch, having a direct view of the spawn's half-open bedroom door. Seeing as the child was asleep, he was hoping she wouldn't wake up and get him into trouble but knowing her over the years had taught him to never underestimate her. She was a smart little human.

He lets his mind wander through his expectations, through all the possible outcomes of seeing Chloe for the first time since he left. Could she ever be mad at him? Does she even expect it? Did she ever think he would be able to come back eventually? His head was so full of questions, so much that he was afraid it would burst. Those last eighty years without therapy had been really rough, he needed to see Linda as soon as possible but first, he had to see Chloe.

He doesn't know how much time goes by before he hears her approaching, sensing her presence right before the moment she puts her key on the lock. He stands up abruptly, walking off to stand in the middle of the room, ready to welcome her into his arms, to finally hold her, kiss her, tell her how much he loves her and how much of a torture his life has been without her. He was so ready, he had been waiting for that moment for eighty years.

And then the door opens.

Chloe walks in trying to find something inside her purse, completely distracted and not paying attention to the figure standing in the middle of her living room. Lucifer feels endeared immediately, loving how her tongue is poking out because she is so concentrated. He can tell she looks tired, too.

However, and putting aside all the behavioral things he notices of her, the moment he sees her his heart starts beating a mile a minute. He can believe he has her there, standing just a couple of feet away, so close that he could easily take three steps and wrap her in his arms to never let go. She is right there and he is frozen in place because all of a sudden it feels like his last eighty years of life didn't even happen, that they were just a preparation for this specific moment in time.

And right then, when he thinks he cannot possibly feel any more affected, Chloe lifts up her gaze, letting her blue eyes look straight through his black ones. With that, he melts all over again.

"Hello, Chloe," he mumbles in complete disbelief, wanting to move, to do something but being completely frozen in place. She drops her purse, lets it fall to the floor in a loud thud.

"I... is it you?" She asks, taking one tentative step towards the man of her life, the owner of her heart. She felt as if her eyes were deceiving her, that maybe Lucifer was just a hallucination because she was so tired. "Is it really you?" She is completely dumbfounded, completely taken aback.

"In the flesh," the devil answers, feeling how his eyes start filling up with tears and the knot in his throat starts to swell.

And then, without any kind of doubt or hesitation, she runs towards him and wraps her arms around the love of her life, finally letting the devil and herself feel whole again.


	6. Chapter VI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guys!
> 
> Sorry if it's crap but differential calculus doesn't give me much time to write these days. It's VERY dialogue-y, basically Lucifer and Chloe talk through their issues and set some things straight. 
> 
> Also, WTF? You never fail to surprise me. Are we really over 3k hits? This hasn't been up for even a month and already 3k?? You are so awesome, thank you so much!
> 
> So, data nobody asked for but I still like to tell: I survived my first week of university and on Wednesday I cut off 18in/45cm of my hair to donate to women with breast cancer, which makes me really, really happy. There, I just wanted to tell someone that. 
> 
> Keep commenting and leaving kudos to make this one (1) girl very happy and I'll see you whenever chapter seven is ready. 
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> P.S.: guys, I know the "muffin" thing is a Lauren-Tom shtick but as I was writing I couldn't help myself from including it. It's just soooo lovely and beautiful!

"I missed you so much," Chloe had been the first one to talk as they were coming down from their highs, right after she brought her breathing back to a normal rate. For the first time, she was able to understand the appeal of reunion sex, finding it far more satisfactory now that she had such good and strong emotions going through her body.

Starting from when Chloe attached herself to Lucifer like a koala bear, there had been an unspoken agreement that things had to be that way from then on. From the minute they were reunited to the present time, there had not been a single moment where they weren't physically touching, starting from when Chloe stood on her tiptoes to kiss the devil on the lips.

They had missed each other so much that it was just so hard to stay apart now that they had finally gotten the other back. Be it for two months or eighty years, both of them had been in their own kind of Hell without the other, and without exaggerating, learning to build a life without one of its constants was hard. It would be really unfair to even ask them to separate, and if someone did, they would say no without hesitation. They had missed the warmth of the other, their presence, they had even missed themselves and how they were and acted when the other was around. They were forced to draw to the conclusion that they did not function properly while apart, and whilst they could be alive and could live without each other, they simply didn't want to.

Chloe would never admit it but during their passionate time, she let a tear or two escape the confinement of her blue eyes. She was just so happy, so positively overwhelmed by it all that she managed to forget every single worrying thing. She could no longer think about all the worries and doubts she had about her pregnancy, she could no longer worry about that Ansel guy or what would happen to him, she couldn't even place herself on a specific point of time and space. And blame her, but it felt pretty damn good to be able to zone out, to focus all of her attention and energy on the one thing she had so desperately wanted during those torturous two months: the devil himself.

"I have never, ever in my life, missed someone or something as much as I missed you," they still hadn't gotten the chance to talk about it all, they had just jumped straight into action, straight into love. "And that's saying something, isn't it?"

"It is," Chloe sighed contently, placing her head on top of the devil's chest and letting his heartbeat be her lullaby. "I just can't believe you're back,"

"I know, I can't either," Lucifer placed his arm around Chloe's waist, pulling her closer to his naked body in a useless attempt to feel her close. They were and had already been flesh to flesh, it was difficult to get any closer than that.

"It's just... These two months you've been in Hell have been... well, Hell, to me," Chloe places the palm of her hand right beside her own head, letting her fingertips feel how the devil's heart was hammering against them. For a brief second, the thought that their baby also had a rapid heartbeat went through her mind. "I just... I hated seeing how everyone just moved on and kept going on with their lives and I just couldn't. I didn't want to,"

"I'm glad you didn't want to," Lucifer's train of thought had derailed completely. He had so many things he wanted to say, so many emotions to voice, so many tears to shed. Yet the only thing he could do was answer to his detective's statements.

"I'm glad I didn't, too. And well, it's not like I would have been able to," She says, suddenly and briefly forgetting that Lucifer didn't have a clue about her current state, about the beautiful miracle they had created together. She couldn't see Lucifer's face from her position, but she could sense the look she was a target of.

"What do you mean?" The devil asks, voicing it softly. Chloe releases a loud puff of air, trying to divert the topic of conversation. Right at that moment, she was able to understand that she was in no way ready to tell him about their child.

In that specific second of clarity, Chloe realized many things. For one, she never thought Lucifer would come back, which meant she had never prepared herself to tell him about it. She never felt the need to because the fact that he wasn't coming back seemed so stern and set that it would have done more harm than good to even think about it. Secondly, Chloe knew deep inside her heart that Lucifer hated children, in fact, his hatred for children had been one of their first discussion topics back when they first met. Along with that, Lucifer was not father material in any shape or form, no matter how much perspective you took or from what angle you looked at it. He would be a terrible, terrible father.

And yet, after all of that, Chloe couldn't help it but think that he still deserved to know. He would find out sooner or later as her bump grew in size, and he would be heartbroken if she told him it was someone else's baby. She couldn't do that to him, she didn't have it in her heart to hurt him.

"I..." Chloe tried to improvise without lying, trying to find something believable inside her head. "I loved you. I still do. I wouldn't have been able to move on from that," she sighs when the devil's arm wraps on tighter around her waist.

"I know that much," he mumbles, letting himself be drowned in the haziness of post-sex bliss. Years of holding back, of suppressing all the feelings he had towards her had built up a certain amount of sexual tension which, he wouldn't lie, was fun to finally break.

"You do?" Chloe questioned, raising herself up so she would lay on her stomach, propping herself up with her forearms to look at the devil's face. She hears the devil take a deep breath in as he looks down at her.

"I heard you. Every single time you prayed, I heard you," he says simply, letting the hand that was previously holding Chloe by the waist rest on her lower back. "Your voice was the only thing I had to look forward to,"

"You did?" He nods, smiling melancholically. "Every single time?" He nods again, thinking of how he managed to survive eighty years away from her. Looking back at it now it made him feel like he would not be able to do it again. "I prayed to you every night. Amenadiel told me you would most likely be able to hear me but I never believed him,"

"Why wouldn't you?" He plays with his fingers on her lower back, putting one on one of her dimples.

"I just... you know me, I like to stick to my evidence, and facts and..." she cuts herself off, realizing how nonsensical everything she was saying was. For fuck's sake, she was having the actual devil's spawn.

"And you're in love with the devil," Lucifer completes her sentence, reaching out to touch her cheek with his free hand, lovingly stroking her skin. "Which reminds me, I've never told you how I felt before... our night," the devil starts, sighing shakily. He had never been too eloquent with his words, it had always been a struggle for him to understand what he felt, so saying it was even worse. "And I will never, ever, make that mistake again, of not telling you how I feel," she stares at him with a beautiful shine in her eyes that makes the devil's heart beat twice as fast. "Being in Hell for eighty years without you was pure torture and I regretted not telling you how I felt before every single second of it," at that, Chloe frowns, looking at Lucifer confusedly.

"Wait wait, you were gone for only two months..." she comments, confused as to why Lucifer would say something like that. If she had been hurting because they were apart for two months... She couldn't even imagine what eighty years would feel like.

"Time runs slower in Hell, so much that apparently, one day here on earth is a year and a half down there," Lucifer explains, looking at his detective in the eyes and thinking of his luck, of how lucky he had become that _Chloe Decker_ had happened to him. He had missed her so much and now he had her back, naked and laying right beside him. He never thought it would happen, he thought he would never see her again.

"Why didn't you tell me that before you left? Lucifer, jeez, that's _eighty_ years," Chloe complains, moving forward so her face would be closer to the devil's. She suddenly needed to feel him closer. "We could have, I don't know, talked about it? Maybe there was another way around the prophecy... I've only been two months away from you and they were torture,"

"Well, for starters, I didn't know that one day on earth was a year and a half in Hell, I never kept track of such things," he explains, running his hand up and down Chloe's lower back, trying to get the touch to soothe her. He could see that she was really worried about that time difference, maybe about what it could have done to him being away for so long. "And two, there is no way around the prophecy. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you because I didn't do something I was supposed to," he shivers at the thought of something happening to her, at the idea that one day something could just happen and just like that, things would never be the same ever again. "I gave you my word that no harm would come your way, and I intended (and still do) to keep that promise,"

"You know, I'm not like a doll you have to protect and carry around," she comments, trying to relax and understand that there really wasn't any other scenario where things could have worked out differently. Lucifer had to leave and spend eighty years in Hell, and she could only be thankful that she had him back in her arms when she actually thought she would never see him again. "I still... Woah, eighty years? You've really been gone for eighty years?" She asks dumbfoundedly, trying to put herself in that situation, walk a mile in his shoes. She just couldn't believe he had gone through that agony just to protect her.

"The worst eighty years of my life, dare I say. I missed earth so much, I missed _you_ so much," he leans forward and pecks his detective's lips, earning a small smile from her. He never thought he would be one to love domesticity, just laying naked in bed and talking things through. He just thought he wasn't cut for the fluffy, domestic behavior, that he just wasn't a homey kind of devil. "I will never, ever give you up again, I give you my word,"

"I love you," and she just couldn't keep it in anymore, she just loved him so much it physically hurt. They had been through so many things together that had shaped them so much but more importantly, those things had let them grow and evolve into and around each other. It would be just completely inhumane to ever ask them to be apart ever again.

"And I you..." the word 'detective' got stuck in his throat. He had tried to convince himself that he called her 'detective' out of endearment but he could now understand that he was afraid her name would just wear off of using it too much. It was as if calling her by her name, Chloe, would just make things that little bit more real. Now he knew where he wanted things to go, towards what _was_ real. "Chloe,"

"I... I know that you're not the serious relationship kind of guy but," for that moment in time, Chloe had completely gotten rid of the thought that she was expecting, she had completely erased it from her mind. The only thing she could think about was the fact that she was in love with the devil. She wanted them to finally settle down, to just stop messing around with their feelings and finally take action on them. It was about time. "I love you. And you know me... I don't go on about life telling people I love them just out of the blue, so you have to believe me when I tell you that what I feel towards you is _very_ much real," she was stuttering a little because, although she was a grown woman, she still felt like a teenager telling her crush she liked him.

"I do believe you. And I have never lied to you, so I can only expect that you wouldn't lie to me either," the Prince of Darkness sighed shakily, understanding where the conversation was headed. He did want them to take the next step, to finally be in a committed relationship with her because he loved her, but it was still something quite difficult and awkward to talk about.

"I'm in. I really want to give _us_ a try, and the truth is... during these two months that I was away from you I realized that I can live with you... I just don't want to. And if that doesn't mean anything to you, then..." she couldn't help it but feel afraid of rejection. It had happened numerous times in the past. The moment things got a little bit too real, Lucifer would just run, do something impulsive and then come back and try to act as if nothing had happened. She really did not want to be in that place ever again.

"I know that look. You look scared and I know what you're thinking. You're scared that I will just run away," Chloe gives the Prince of Darkness a small nod, acknowledging the fact that she was, indeed, afraid. She didn't want to be hurting anymore. "And you know that I always tell you the truth so... Here goes my truth: I'm scared as well. To my core. After everything that happened with Eve I just... I don't know if I can trust my heart to anyone," Lucifer is able to see how Chloe's face changes, shifts into a deeply sad expression, so he is quick to correct himself. "But I want to. I want to trust my heart to you,"

"I love you, Lucifer. I want you to know that I will never do anything to hurt you, at least not purposefully," she corresponds to the smile she gets from the Devil, being hopeful that he will choose to give them a try. The Prince of Darkness sighs, looking straight into Chloe's eyes as he speaks.

"You know... Right before I came back to earth I had an... enlightening conversation with someone and through that, I understood some things. For example, that although some things that happened between us weren't entirely our doing, I was never kept from choosing. And neither were you," Chloe gives him a confused frown, smiling slightly at all the Luciferness those phrases had held. She had missed him so damn much, it was with those little things that she realized they had been away for far too long. "And now I tell you that I choose you, I want to be with you,"

"You do?" She smiles widely, pecking the devil on the lips and being completely unable to keep her emotions and feelings to herself. She was happy, and although she wanted to remain wary, knowing Lucifer, she was unable to wipe the smile off her face.

"I do," Lucifer answers, smiling back at his detective and reaching out to touch her cheek. "I choose you," Chloe let's out a breathy giggle, completely dumbstruck by the fact that that was it. They were really doing relationships.

"Are we really doing this?" Lucifer nods, pulling her closer to him with the hand down by her waist. "Are you now a relationship kind of devil?" The devil giggles, pecking her lips twice before pulling a single strand of hair away from her beautiful face.

"It would seem like I am. All thanks to you, though. You're the only woman on earth since the beginning of time that's made the devil fall in love," Chloe hides her face in his chest, smiling like a teenager and feeling her cheeks heat up.

"I'm glad that I'm the only one," she mumbles, still hiding her face and trying to get more comfortable.

"And I'm glad it's you," she blushes profusely, choosing to go back to the position that was on earlier, where she had her hair laying on his chest. That way he would not be able to see how deeply she was blushing.

They stay in silence for a while, just hearing the other's breathing as they mentally went over everything that had happened in the last half an hour. Chloe had come home with the idea that she would kiss Trixie's forehead, she would head upstairs, take a shower and just go to bed, all to repeat that exact same boring routine the next day. Up until then, she had been learning how to live without the devil, how to build her life back up, how to go on. She never thought that Lucifer coming back to earth was even a possibility, which was what ended up happening. She came home and found the devil standing right in the middle of her living room, making her believe in the impossible and teaching her again to never underestimate the world of the celestials. The devil had come back for her, and after some tearful and pleasurable reunion sex, she had gotten herself into a relationship with the love of her life. Even when everything that had happened earlier, the incident with Ansel, Amenadiel not knowing what motives their brother had at heart, feeling afraid for her baby's life, even with all that, it had still been one of the best days of her life.

"Hey, can I ask you a question?" Chloe asks after a while, hugging the devil tightly.

"Sure," her partner answers, carefully and lovingly letting his fingers go through her hair.

"When you said you had had an enlightening conversation before coming to Earth, you said something about some things that happened between us that not being completely our doing," Lucifer nods, remembering the words he said, the little chat he had with his father. "Does that have anything to do with the fact that I am a miracle child made directly by the hand of God?" Chloe wasn't angry that he hadn't told her that God had put her in his path, but she still wanted to know if what he meant when he said that was what she thought it could be.

"How..." Lucifer had been clearly taken aback, not expecting Chloe to know about that. He was sure he had never told her, so what were the chances she could have found out on her own. Maybe father Kinley had said something to her, he truly didn't know. "How do you know about that?"

"Amenadiel told me the day after you left. I was trying to convince myself that there was a tiny, small chance of you coming back but he told me that you had already gone to Hell to protect me once. That if you had gone to Hell to protect me this time, you were most likely not going to come back," that fact wasn't really true. Amenadiel _had t_ old her that she was a miracle child but it was under the context of her finding out she was pregnant, and she still wasn't ready to tell him.

"I..." Lucifer started, trying to explain himself somehow. He was scared that everything he had just gotten would go to waste over it.

"Look, Lucifer, I'm not mad or anything. I just wanted to hear about it from you, learn how these things work. I can't be mad at something that brought me here, with you," Lucifer sighed, finally coming to terms with the fact that he would have to tell her how his father put her into his path. He didn't know what to say because he never thought the day would come where he would have to finally tell the woman he loved that maybe some things that had happened between them weren't completely their doing. "I'm still new to _celestiallity_ ,"

"Yeah, well, basically what happened was that our father sent Amenadiel down to earth to bless a couple who couldn't have children and from that blessing came you. And my father, being the manipulative bastard he is, wrote your fate so our paths would cross eventually and we would meet," when Chloe remained silent after a while, Lucifer panicked. He thought he was going to lose her, that she would react to the news the same way he did, running away, and that he would never see her again now that he had just gotten her back. He tried to say something, but Chloe finally spoke.

"So what am I, like a pawn?" She didn't sound hurt, maybe because she already had time to process things, but she wasn't too happy either.

"No, no you're not," Lucifer was quick to answer, going back to brushing his fingers through her hair. "That was what I felt when I first found out, around the time you got poisoned," Chloe kept silent, letting the devil explain himself and trying to be as calm and collected as possible. She wasn't mad at him, but it wasn't too nice to know that your purpose in life was to cross paths with someone else. "We were getting together then, and I found out, and I thought you knew and were doing it all on purpose so I ran. I married Candy and helped her out of some debt, and then I came back. And I guess that after that I just forgot about it. Yes, you still made me vulnerable, yes, I still felt things towards you but I never thought much of it," Lucifer sighs, thinking of how messed up everything was. His father was utter shit. "Until I had a chat with my father before coming back to earth,"

"Wait. So God went down to Hell?" Chloe asks confusedly, suddenly losing interest in the fact that she had been part of a lifelong manipulation process.

"Yeah, I was surprised, too," Lucifer answers, tentatively pulling his love tighter against his chest and breathing in her scent. He had missed like crazy. "And he came in human form, too, which was a first. I don't think any of my siblings have ever seen him like that,"

"What did he want?" Chloe presses herself against Lucifer, seeking his warmth as the early hours of early morning approached.

"That's it. He wanted to apologize for being a shit parent," Chloe frowns, having a hard time believing that God went about things that way. And to be honest, Lucifer was having a hard time believing that, too. "My father doesn't apologize,"

"I mean, as a human I thought God wasn't one to apologize,"

"Believe me, he is not. So, he wanted to tell me that I had been absolved of ruling Hell because my brother Ansel had done something much more horrible than what I did, so now he deserved to rule Hell instead of me. Which makes him a greater prick because you do so much as come too close to his ego and he is already vanishing you and vilifying you for the rest of eternity," Chloe tensed up at the mention of Ansel, immediately connecting the dots and assuming that he was the reason why Lucifer was here now. Having changed the king, Lucifer was free to leave without the demons getting loose, it made sense.

"What... what did y-your brother do?" She wanted to know how much Lucifer knew so she could prepare herself for when the moment of telling the truth came.

"He tried to kill an unborn baby my father casually handpicked to place on earth. Guess he's back to the old ways," Lucifer shrugs, evidently not caring about that human life. "He wouldn't tell me who or whose this baby would be, but again, he is the king of all manipulation,"

"Well, I know that probably no one cares what I, Chloe Decker, think, but I believe he deserved that punishment," Chloe adds, feeling relieved that she and her baby were safe now since Ansel would be too occupied ruling Hell to bother them. "An unborn child is pure innocence, why would an angel want to do something like that?"

"Don't know and don't care, really," Chloe can't help but feel a little mad at the fact that Lucifer doesn't care about that baby's life, but again, Chloe does know that the one who was threatened was _their_ child, Lucifer doesn't. "Ansel and I were never that close. He was born and then a couple of hundreds of years later I was vanished so... never got much of a chance to hang out and such,"

"How do you know he's not gonna leave Hell as you did before?" Chloe subtly changes the topic a bit. Blame her, but she wanted to make sure that the angel would never come back to threaten her or her baby.

"When I agreed to abdicate Hell's throne, I did it under a couple of conditions. One, I still get to be the devil no matter what. Two, my father will never ever manipulate me again and three, I forced him to change the way Hell is built. From now on the celestial who's ruling can't leave unless there is another celestial in the dimension with them. So, unless one of my siblings pops down for a visit, no one is leaving," he explains, feeling more relaxed now that the conversation had taken a turn. "And well, back to the point, basically my father told me that he did put you in my path but he never forced either of us to fall in love, which means that feelings happened because we kind of wanted them to happen, I guess,"

"Woah, that's a lot of information," Chloe sighs, nuzzling her head further into Lucifer's warmth and taking a couple of seconds to process all that she had learned. "You know, I'm okay with it as long as you're okay with it. It's not like I can do something about it, right?"

"That bit is very much true. I'm okay with it now, but it doesn't mean I've always been. I really hated that fact for a really long time,"

"I know and I understand. Doesn't mean that I didn't feel like shit when you left to las Vegas, though," Lucifer laughs a little at that, remembering all that happened the first time he went to Las Vegas, meeting Candy, marrying her and such.

"Sorry about that," he apologizes, thinking about the more serious aspect of the topic. It was something he was used to doing, running away when things got way too real or something hurt him. He had always preferred being away for some time than talking through his issues, it had been what was the easiest. Now he didn't want to do that anymore, he didn't want to feel like running ever again and if he felt like it, he wanted to be able to resolve it by talking. "No more running, I promise,"

"You promise?" Chloe voiced it on a teasing kind of tone. She had come to terms with the fact that running away and doing something stupid was Lucifer's way to deal with his issues, but she wouldn't lie and say she didn't like the promise he had made. Now they were together and in a committed relationship, so no more running away.

"I do. I won't run away again. We will resolve any issues we have like the adults we are," he says, sighing and feeling relieved rather than scared about it. He wanted to change and be good for her, he wanted to prove to himself that he deserved her. "Through talking,"

"That is oddly mature of you," Lucifer playfully smacks her on the head, making her laugh brightly. To be totally honest, Chloe had missed hearing herself laugh; it had been a while since the last time. "Hey! You know it's true!"

"All jokes aside, I don't want to hurt you, and I know you've been hurt the last couple of times that I left," Chloe smiles sweetly at the devil.

"I know you don't want that, and thank you, Lucifer. I mean it," Lucifer smiles like the devil in love he is, still finding it hard to believe that _that_ was his life. How could someone like him meet people so wonderful, and manage to fall in love with the best one out of them? "We gotta get some sleep," she adds, turning away so her back is facing the devil, hinting she wanted to be spooned. "We got to get to work early tomorrow," and that was the cherry on top of the cake for Lucifer because, besides falling in love with her, he worked alongside her in a job he loved. Things were coming out to be far too good to be true, there had to be a catch.

"Good night, Muffin," he voices, taking the hint that Chloe wanted to be spooned. He was unable to see her but she smiled widely at the pet name. She had fallen in love with a very creative devil.

"Good night," she was blushing profusely, loving how _right_ and _good_ it felt standing where they were. Relationships were beautiful, but even more so in their early stages, and she couldn't be happier.

As the devil wrapped his left arm over her waist to pull her close to his chest, his hand took place right on top of her belly button. Chloe tensed up for a fraction of a second, relaxing once she remembered that she wasn't obviously pregnant, that nothing gave it away just yet. Still, that fraction of a second was enough for Lucifer to question her reaction, while the constant presence of his hand on her belly made it difficult for her to think of anything else.

And if the Prince of Darkness fell asleep to unknown, rhythmic and fast thuds at the back of his head, well, he wouldn't tell.


	7. Chapter VII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG! 3,5k+ hits?!? Wtf guys, I swear you make me so happy!! Keep it up!!
> 
> So, Covid-19 finally reached my country, yay!! On Friday they said we had 4 cases and today they've cancelled all classes of all levels of education for a month. I wish it meant I had more time to write but it only means I have to do online lessons, yuck. 
> 
> You guys!! You have to watch Miranda, you know, that show Tom did back in 2009 with Miranda Hart? Easily one of the best sitcoms I've ever watched. I laughed my ass off all Saturday afternoon, 10/10, you really should go watch it. 
> 
> So, I initially told myself this fic would be 50k or less, but I seem to have a problem with overwriting, hehe. I mean, Lucifer hasn't found out about the baby and we're over 40k words already so... My new goal is less than 100k but I can't promise anything. 
> 
> I love you so much, guys. Keep it up with comments and kudos, they make me the happiest! Remember to stay in and wash your hands!!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Chloe opened her eyes earlier than she would have liked, having slept awfully. The only way she could describe how she felt was as if she had woken up mere seconds after falling asleep. She felt excruciatingly tired and on top of that, she had woken up fifteen minutes before her alarm went off, feeling nauseous and with lower back pain; one could say her start to the morning hadn't been the easiest. She had an upset stomach and felt slightly disoriented, so when she tried to stand up, besides finding out she couldn't, she felt how her entire world spun right before her eyes. She was comfortable to say she passionately hated that part of pregnancy, the entirety of the first trimester. 

Turning her head to look at what was holding her back made her remember the night before. Her eyes met a completely asleep Lucifer, who was clinging on tightly to her as he peacefully slept, wrapping his left hand tightly around her midriff and looking unbothered. She smiled endeared and carefully took his hand into her own, moving it away and being grateful that although she was nauseous, throwing up wasn't imminent. Once she was able to get out of Lucifer's tight grasp, she sat on the bed slowly, trying to avoid feeling dizzy all over again. She took that time to secretly admire her lover's beauty, how childlike and calm he seemed to be when he slept. Ironically, he was sleeping like an angel. 

She picked up Lucifer's dressing shirt from the floor and put it on herself, doing a couple of buttons before standing up. She sniffed at it, wanting to feel him closer but when she did so, her whole face scrunched up. She found that the scent she had always loved on him made her feel even more nauseous, so she made her way to the bathroom as quickly as she could and splashed cold water on her face. Doing that was one of the only things that always helped her feel better. Now she had her medication, but she had left it downstairs, together with her prenatal vitamins and the pictures of the ultrasound. 

She looked at her reflection on the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face was slightly swollen, signaling that she didn't have a good night's sleep at all. One would think that sleeping with the one she loved after a passionate night of reunion sex would make her sleep better, but truth to be told she felt like crap. She wasn't used to sharing her bed with someone, and she could love Lucifer all she wanted but he wouldn't be the one to rub her now hurting back. Well... maybe he would if she asked, it was worth a try. 

She scanned herself, wanting to know if there were any obvious reminders of the night before plastered on her skin. The night before, she had met a quite territorial side of Lucifer, and he had spent a lot of time working on her neck and collarbones. She pulled the shirt away from her skin and discovered some love bites, marks from the passionate night she had shared with her love that were littering her skin. It was almost beautiful, if not for the fact that they would stay for a while. They looked like they had been purposefully made to decorate her skin she didn't know how to feel about them, about that fact. She didn't know if she liked them or not, and she could only be thankful they were light in color and not so high up her neck, so they wouldn't be too difficult to hide. 

Sighing loudly, she then stood so her profile would be reflected, looking straight at her covered abdomen. Under the fabric of the shirt no one would even guess she was pregnant, and if she lifted it up her abdomen was so flat that no one would even take a second glance at it. 

She knew the truth, though. She knew that under those layers of muscle and skin there was another heart beating away, another being growing and changing by the minute, someone that one day would become a person, an angel, dare she say. She placed her hand on her nonexistent bump, putting a little bit of pressure and noticing how it was slightly harder than her normal non-pregnant self, how her body was slowly but surely taking on the fact that she was expecting and making adjustments. Back when she was pregnant with Trixie, she had taken her sweet time to start showing but with her current pregnancy, she couldn't help but feel she would start showing earlier. Her jeans started to feel tighter during the afternoons, something that didn't happen to her while she wasn't expecting.

"Eight weeks and three days, baby," she says in a low and sweet voice, stroking the skin on her stomach and turning around so she would be able to see it from the front. 

At that exact moment, she notices another love bite marking her skin, and all she can do about it is smile widely. Lucifer had left a slightly darker love bite on the left side of her lower belly, one that was suspiciously shaped like a heart. She smiled dumbfoundedly, brushing her fingers over it and pressing on her skin, watching it fade away and then get its color back. 

"I promise I will tell daddy about you," Chloe talks to her baby in the lowest volume possible, not wanting Lucifer to walk in on her talking to her bump. "But you'll have to wait, I'm not ready yet, okay?" She pats the skin on her stomach lovingly, already feeling the unexplainable kind of love and attachment mothers had with their children. "I love you so much,"

Then, as a way to end her unidirectional conversation with her baby, she kisses the palm of her own hand and places it on her flat bump, rubbing it lovingly before pulling Lucifer's shirt down and doing the rest of the buttons. 

-

When Lucifer wakes up, he does so to the sound of Chloe's alarm going off. He groans then, out of pure tiredness. He had completely forgotten how much energy it took him to go in and out of Hell, but he was happy that it had been the last time. How he didn't fall asleep the night before while he and Chloe were talking was beyond him. He slowly opens his dark eyes, getting into contact with reality and dreading the fact that he was leaving the dream he was having, it was a nice one. There was a lot less nudity than he was accustomed to, which he would normally deem weird, but surprisingly, he didn't question it. 

Half asleep still, he reaches out to touch the left side of the bed where Chloe was supposed to be and finds it empty. That simple realization does the trick and wakes him up completely, as he takes a glance around the room to try and find her. He shifts his position so his weight is supported by his right forearm, suddenly more aware of his surroundings and not liking the fact that Chloe wasn't beside him. 

Right at that moment, Chloe comes out of the bathroom, dressed only with Lucifer's white dressing shirt and brushing her teeth. He smirks at the sight of her, ogling how she rests her right hip on the door frame. To his eyes, she would always look beautiful, but she would look even more so when she was always wearing his clothes. 

"Good morning, beautiful," Chloe smiles as she brushes her teeth, hugging herself with her free hand. She knew she looked like a mess, she hadn't brushed her hair and she had barely washed her face, she was sure she looked horrible. However, the look on Lucifer's face was of pure and total adoration. "There's only one thing I like to see you on more than naked, and it's with my clothes on," Chloe rolls her eyes but smiles still, going inside the bathroom to quickly finish brushing her teeth. 

"Of course you'd say that," she approaches him then, sitting right beside him and running her fingers through his thick hair. She can't help but briefly wonder if their baby would have his dark and thick hair or her blonde and straight one. "Good morning to you, too," she pecks his lips briefly and catches him smiling when she pulls away. 

"Do we really have to go to work today? Can't we just stay in?" The devil asks, giving his normally deep and strong voice a whiney tone. "Do we even have a case?"

"We do, actually," Chloe stands up then, walking towards her dresser and picking up some clothes. They had taken a shower before laying down the night before so they wouldn't have to wake up even earlier to shower in the morning. It had been a really sensible decision. "Twenty-five-year-old male, two gunshots to the chest. We have reason to believe he is involved with the Mexican Drug cartel, he had an imprint of their ring on his jacket but other than that there's not much evidence. The gun they used was nine millimeters, so untraceable. I got it yesterday so it's pretty new," she talks as she puts some clothes on, starting with her underwear. She is able to tell that Lucifer is watching her as she slips into her panties and undoes the buttons of the shirt to put on her bra. 

"Your breasts are larger," he comments, looking at her while she is clipping her bra behind her back. She just gasps at him, smiling because she is not surprised at all that he would notice. She looks down at them and realizes that being on her underwear made it really noticeable that they had grown. 

"Really?" She asks, grabbing his dressing shirt and throwing it on him, making him laugh. "That's all you can think of? I was telling you about the case!" She was being playful because she knew they had time to go over the evidence and such, and truth to be told she was so happy he was back that she just couldn't find it in her heart to call him out for such things. She would never admit it but that kind of uncalled for comments had been one of the things she had missed the most about him. 

"Can you blame me, though?" He asks, standing up in all his naked glory. Chloe can't help it but let her eyes wander to his beautiful body, noticing that, of course, he was half hard. "You're dressing up in front of me, I won't complain," he makes his way towards her but she turns around, putting on her jeans and trying to focus on anything else. They really had to get to work, there could be no time for distractions. "Although I would rather have you undressing in front of me," he grabs her by the waist and places his hands on the button of her jeans, undoing them and teasing. 

"Lucifer, we have to get to work," she says halfheartedly, putting her hands on her fly and redoing it. She was feeling really horny right at that moment, blame pregnancy or blame having the devil as your boyfriend, and she really wanted to just give in. Then she remembered she had to get Trixie up and going as well and she had to decline. 

"Come on, muffin," he started leaving kisses on the crook of her shoulder, teasing his way up towards the back of her neck. She had to remain strong, there was plenty of time for sex later. 

"Nope," she doesn't know how but she gets the strength to pull away, grabbing a shirt of her own to finish dressing up and walking away. It was really tempting, and she knew that morning sex was just wonderful, but they really didn't have the time. They would have to shower again, and given the fact that Trixie was at hers, she would have to drop her off at school before going to work, there was no way where they wouldn't be late. "We're gonna be late," 

"A quickie," he says, still standing naked before her. She really had to force herself to look at him in the eyes. She walks towards him and pecks him on the lips, going into the bathroom to grab a comb. 

"No, I have to get Trixie up and drop her off at school, we can't," she says right before he pecks him. "And by the way, I'm gonna have to tell her that you're here and such, so could you please give me a couple of minutes to get her up and going?" She brushes her hair and does her best job at a neat ponytail, not wanting to spend much time on it. 

"Sometimes it's really counterproductive the fact that you're immune to my charms," he pouts a little, making Chloe smile out of endearment. 

"And yet you still chose me," she walks past him, lacking only her shoes to be ready to leave the house. She would put them on right before leaving because she just liked to be barefoot inside her home. "I'm going to go wake Trixie up, and please, put on some clothes before you come downstairs," And then Chloe just leaves the room, closing the door behind her back. 

She walks down the staircase rather quickly, trying to remember where she put her purse the night before. Finding Lucifer in her place when she most certainly didn't expect him had messed with her routine, so much that she couldn't remember where she had left her stuff. She finds her purse on the floor, right beside the entrance door and makes her way towards it, getting her prenatal vitamins, the medication for the nausea and the ultrasound pictures out of it. Trixie was so excited that Chloe had gone to see the baby that she was sure it'd be the first thing she'd ask about. 

"Hey, babe," she knocks on Trixie's squinted door, smiling sweetly at the image of her daughter asleep. She had such peace and tranquillity within her that it would soothe her right away just to watch her sleep. "Baby, it's time to wake up," she calls, walking in and opening her shutters. Trixie shifts in bed, moving away from the light and trying to sleep a little bit more. 

"Five more minutes, mommy, please," Trixie says, burying her face on her pillow and bringing her covers up to her chin. Chloe sits down on her bed and puts a hand on her back, poking her slightly so it would tickle her. "Mommy!" She giggles a bit, trying to get away from her mother's hands. 

"Up, Monkey. I have really good news to tell you," Chloe teases and to that, Trixie sits up, looking at her mom with the brightest shine in her eyes. Chloe loved how close she was to her daughter. 

"What is it?" Trixie yawns but Chloe can still see she's excited. 

"Come here," Chloe pats her lap and Trixie gets the invitation to go sit there. Both of them loved spending time together. "Sorry that I missed storytime last night,"

"It's okay, mommy. Olga told me a really funny story," she sits on her mother's lap and hugs her, greeting her for the morning. "So what is the good news?" 

"There's two good news, actually," Chloe pulls a strand of her away from her daughter's face. "I went to see the baby yesterday," Trixie's face lights up at the mention of the ultrasound and she suddenly forgets she was tired and wanted to keep on sleeping. 

"You did?!" Chloe nods. "That's so cool! Do you have any pictures?" Trixie was so excited and happy that she was going to be a big sister that it melted Chloe's heart. She would be the best big sister ever. 

"I do," Chloe pulls the set of photos out of the back pocket of her jeans, unfolding the strip they were in so she could share them with her daughter. "See? That's the baby, right there," Chloe points at the little blob inside the black sac and stares at Trixie's confused face. The little girl was looking at all the photos confusedly, staring at the white blob that made her sibling and not understanding why it looked that way. 

"Mommy, that doesn't look like a baby," Trixie says, taking the strip of pictures into her own hands. "It looks like a chicken nugget," Chloe barks a laugh at that while Trixie smiles, still not understanding why it looked like that. 

"Monkey, it's not a chicken nugget," Chloe says, laughing a bit still. "It's really early, so the baby is really small. As it gets bigger it will look more and more like a normal baby," 

"It's kind of ugly," she comments, looking over the pictures and stopping at the one that had the measurements for its heartrate. 

"Trix! You were like that, too, you know? We all were," Chloe tries to explain, looking at the photos again and smiling contently. "This bit here is its head, and this part here the rest of its body," she points at the head and the body, amused by Trixie's reaction rather than mad. It was not her fault that it was the first time she's seen an ultrasound picture, and babies that young did look kind of weird. 

"And why is there this other blob here?" She points at a spot right beside one of the pictures of the baby. "Are they twins?!" She asks excitedly, pointing at the blob and smiling widely. Chloe panicked for a little, taking a better look at the blob her daughter was pointing at. She was suddenly afraid that the doctor would have missed something like twins, could it be possible?

"No, Monkey, it's not twins," Chloe sighs out of relief when she sees that Trixie was pointing at the yolk sac and that indeed there wasn't another baby. Those were a rough couple of seconds. "That's the baby's yolk sac,"

"What does it do?" Trixie looks at her with curiosity in her eyes. Chloe had never been more thankful for not having morning sex because if she had, she wouldn't have been able to have that chat with her daughter and she really wanted to speak with her. 

"It's a little sac that helps the baby with breathing and nourishment. For now, it gets the nutrients from what I eat through the placenta, but as it's still so early, it needs a little help from the yolk sac to keep growing," Chloe explains, instinctively rocking herself back and forth with her daughter on her lap. Trixie remains silent for a couple of seconds, just staring at the pictures of her sibling and smiling. 

"It still looks like a nugget to me," Trixie adds, tearing her eyes away from the pictures and looking up at her mom. 

"Well, you can call it _nugget_ if you want," Chloe suggests and Trixie smiles, placing one of her tiny hands on Chloe's flat stomach and rubbing it softly. 

"I really love _nugget_ ," Chloe gives her an emotional smile at that, loving how genuine and innocent it sounded. She was so lucky to have Trixie as her daughter. 

"Do you?" The girl nods rapidly, smiling with dimples on her cheeks. "Yeah, I really love _nugget_ , too" Trixie gives her a toothy smile, bringing her eyes back down to the pictures. "You know, in about a month I have to go in for another ultrasound. You can come with me if you want, the baby will look much more like a human by then," 

"Really?" Chloe nods, hugging her daughter. "I can go with you?" 

"Of course, Monkey. I know how excited you are," Trixie smiles the widest and the brightest Chloe has ever seen her, hugging the pictures of her sibling tightly to her chest. 

"Thank you, mommy," Trixie hugs her next, burying her face on her mother's chest and feeling really happy. They stay like that for a couple of minutes, just enjoying being held by the other and sharing a moment together. Chloe was so happy that Trixie was reacting to her pregnancy so well. Rather than being jealous or ignoring it, she had been participating a lot, asking a lot of questions and trying to help Chloe when the pregnancy symptoms got the best of her. She really was the sweetest daughter she could have ever asked for.

"Mommy?" Trixie says with a soft voice. 

"Yes, Monkey?" Chloe wipes a single tear off her face. Blame the hormones but she was really emotional and having such a sweet daughter was just too endearing and beautiful for her not to cry. 

"What was the other news you wanted to tell me?" Luckily she hadn't noticed her mother crying. That would ensure a load more questions. 

"Oh, of course," Chloe remembers the other reason for their chat, so she quickly composes herself and seats Trixie further away on her lap so she can look at her. "You will be really happy about this but I need you to stay calm, okay?" Trixie nods, already smiling. Chloe was afraid she would be so excited about Lucifer coming back that she would just blurt out that Chloe was pregnant in front of him. 

"What is it, mommy?" She asks sweetly, already trying to tone down her excitement. 

"Well, last night I got home pretty late and I found a surprise," Trixie smiles impossibly wider, wanting to know really badly. "Lucifer came back," Chloe didn't even have time to finish saying the sentence that her daughter was already bombarding her with questions. 

"Really?! Oh my God, I missed him so much! Where is he? We have to tell him about the baby!" Trixie jumps out of Chloe's lap and speaks excitedly, so much that Chloe is barely able to cover her mouth right before the word 'baby' gets screamed at the top of her lungs. "What's wrong? Is he here?" She says with excitement overflowing her voice, having missed her devil friend so very much. 

"Baby, remember that I told you I needed you to stay calm?" Chloe reminds her daughter and Trixie immediately stops jumping around in her room. She just smiles really widely and is unable to stop herself from feeling excited but at least she wasn't screaming anymore. "Lucifer doesn't know about the baby," Chloe tells her, pulling her closer so she would stand in front of her. 

"I know, that's why we should go and tell him!" Trixie says it as if it's the easiest thing in the world, completely taking the importance of it away. 

"Monkey, I know you're really excited and really want him to know, but I just... He just came back from a very long trip, and he's got a lot on his mind, so I don't think this is the best time. Besides, I don't feel ready yet," well, that last bit was, in fact, true. Lucifer was perfectly fine, he would react to the news the same way then, or a month from then, he was like that. Chloe was the one that needed convincing and time. 

"But he has to know. He deserves to know," Trixie argues; her excitement and happiness quickly lessening in intensity. 

"And he will, just not now, okay? I want to be the one that tells him and right now, I don't feel ready," Chloe explains, brushing the hair out of Trixie's face as she spoke. "Can you keep the secret? Just for a little while," 

"You are gonna tell him, right?" The girl says, not trusting her mother. She really liked Lucifer and she really thought he had to know. If it was up to her she would go and tell him straight away. 

"I am. I just need some time, you can understand that, right?" 

"Yes, mommy," Trixie smiles tightly as she speaks, unhappy that things didn't go how she wanted them to go. She understood that her mom needed some time but she was just so excited. Everyone had the right to feel as excited as she was. If she only knew that Lucifer would most likely not be thrilled at the prospect of being a father... 

Right at that moment, Chloe hears Lucifer walking down the stairs and into the living room, so she decides to completely change her topic of conversation. 

"Hey, baby, Lucifer's here. Do you want to go greet him?" Trixie's face lights up at that, remembering that she was more excited to see him than she was sad about him not knowing about the baby. 

"Really? Where is he?" She says excitedly, smiling from ear to ear. 

"I think he just came downstairs. Go give him the tightest hug, okay?" Chloe smiles with the tiniest hint of mischief, already picturing how Lucifer was going to react to Trixie hugging him. If only he would be a little more open to the idea of children, everything would be easier. Maybe if that changed, Chloe wouldn't be so afraid of him finding out about her pregnancy. 

When Chloe comes out of Trixie's room she is immediately faced with one of the cutest scenes she had ever seen in her entire life. It wasn't as if she hadn't seen Trixie hugging Lucifer before, but that particular time just made it feel a little more special. Maybe it was that she was pregnant and emotional, or maybe the fact that they were together now was what made it different, but she couldn't stop the smile from spreading on her face. 

"Hello, child," Lucifer greets her uncomfortably, lifting his arms and trying to get into contact with the girl as little as possible. 

"I missed you so much!" She says, placing her cheek on his abdomen as she hugged him and smiling. It was a true fact that the devil had long legs. Even if Trixie had grown ever since he last saw her, she was still just a couple of inches taller than the height of his belly button. 

Chloe makes eye contact with Lucifer and she can tell he's uncomfortable, she can tell that he wants Trixie to break the hug as soon as possible. And yet, after hearing her say she missed him, Chloe visibly sees him swallow his words and replace them for ones that melt her heart.

Carefully, and as if he were afraid of what he was doing, he lowers his arms and places his big hands on the child's small shoulders, briefly and awkwardly hugging her back. He was so out of his element, it was something so foreign to him and yet, he was trying to make Trixie feel welcome. 

"I missed you, too, spawn," Chloe smiled brightly, letting her eyes get shiny with tears. She was so emotional she couldn't stand herself. 

"You did?" Trixie looks up from where she's still hugging him, not expecting the devil to reciprocate. 

"Considering the fact that I thought I would never see earth again... Then yes, I did miss you," and there came the usual Lucifer back, dropping his arms against his sides and waiting for the child to stop hugging him. 

"You're so funny!" She detaches herself from the devil, smiling toothly at him. "Come! You have to see my new doll! She's Tammy Twnikletoes cousin!" Chloe then deems the time appropriate to intervene because, even as amused as she was by the interaction, she knew that if Trixie held them up too much neither of them would make it in time to either school or work. 

"Baby, you can show him your doll later, you have to get to school so go change" she speaks, standing strong even when she sees her daughter pout at her, holding on tightly to Lucifer's hand. 

"And normally I'd be really interested in cousins," he says as he rids himself of the child's hold, wiping his hand on his trousers and hating how children's hands were always sweaty. 

Trixie walks off to her bedroom to change, leaving Lucifer and Chloe alone in the living room, closing the door behind her back. Lucifer tries to get his suit in order, busying himself with it to avoid looking into Chloe's eyes. He could sense the comment that was coming. 

"That was really sweet," she walks up to him and fixes the collar of his shirt. He hadn't thought about bringing another suit to change in the morning, so he was wearing the one he arrived with, which had been left pretty wrinkly after the previous night. 

"The fact that I fancy cousins?" He tries to divert the topic of conversation but he only gets a playful slap to the shoulder and the weight of said hand left on top of it afterward. Chloe would never admit that the comment had made her slightly jealous but what was new? She couldn't expect the devil to radically change his ways, could she?

"You know what I'm talking about. You didn't push her away," Chloe stands on her tiptoes and pecks his lips sweetly, lingering there for just a second longer. "I thought you didn't lie, though,"

"I don't," he says simply, trying to understand the reasons why he actually said that. Maybe because it was what he felt. "I guess I did miss the little urchin... a little bit,"

"You did? Since when do you care?" Chloe couldn't help but feel a flutter make its way through her chest. The prospect of Lucifer kind of liking children was the tiniest bit of hope she needed to hold on to. 

"I don't know. Guess the little thing can be pretty persuasive," he scowls, not recognizing himself. Being away for eighty years and without the people he cared about had done something to him, that was for sure. 

"Lucifer, it's okay to feel attached," Chloe rises her right hand to touch his right cheek, lovingly stroking his scruffy skin. "To like children, even," 

"That's the thing. I never grew attached before, I never cared for a child before," he confesses, bringing his hands to Chloe's waist and pulling her close, trying to find comfort. "I never cared for anyone for that matter,"

"Trixie loves you. She has ever since she met you. You just have to start letting people in and you'd be surprised by how many there are that care about you," her voice is sweet and caring but the devil still looks at her like he is not sure. "And I think you already know how much you mean to me,"

"It's just... I've never been afraid because I never felt like I had something to lose. Now I have you and..." he drops his gaze to the floor, staring at his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. He felt self-conscious, emotionally vulnerable, and even if he was, in fact, scared, he was not terrified as he would have been before. That had to be something good, right?

"You're not gonna lose me, okay? Not if I can do something about it," Chloe reassures him, letting her hand on his cheek for longer. 

"That's the thing. I don't think you can do something about it," he reasons, holding on more tightly to her. 

"Is this about your dad?"

"When is it not about my dad? He's a bastard. Just as easily as he gave me you, he could take you away and where you're headed... I'm afraid I can't follow," Chloe looks at him with a tight and concerned smile, doing her best to help him feel better. 

"What makes you think I'll go to Heaven?" Lucifer then scoffs like it was obvious. 

"Don't you see it? Chloe, you're more of an angel that any of my siblings, or I for that matter, have ever been. You're headed directly to Heaven," he smiles bittersweetly, thinking of the hopefully far away moment where he would have to say goodbye to his love forever. He didn't know how much that would hurt, he had never experienced loss before, but one thing he was sure about was that after Chloe, he would never want to grow attached to anyone ever again. 

"I'm going to ignore how painfully sweet that was because you need to know this, Lucifer: love is worth it. You don't know much about it as of now, you're just starting, but it is so beautiful that heartbreak is just a small price to pay for it. You can't keep holding yourself back from it," Chloe speaks, dumping her feelings into words and trying to get the devil to think positively about what was happening. "You have so many people that love you, so many people that care about you. You just have to learn to give in to that,"

"What did I do to deserve you?" He strokes the soft skin of her cheek with his callous right hand, watching as she closed her eyes to the touch. "I love you,"

"I love you, too," Chloe responds, feeling her heart speed up at the words. She would never get used to hearing them. They stay in silence for a couple of seconds, just staring into the other's eyes and drowning themselves on emotions. "You know, everyone at the precinct is going to be thrilled that you're back," Chloe breaks the silence, bringing both of her hands back to the devil's shoulders. 

"That is true," he agrees, smiling smugly and quickly wiping away any trace of emotion their previous conversation might have left behind. Chloe still had to understand how he managed to switch on and off his emotions so quickly. "Maybe except for detective douche," 

"You have to understand him, he's still grieving," she says, smiling tightly. She would have to talk to Dan. Now that Lucifer was back, Dan would want to tear his eyes off, now more than ever. To his mind, Lucifer had knocked Chloe up and ran, and if things had actually gone that way, well... he would deserve to have his eyes torn off, but it wasn't the case. "I'll talk to him,"

"Chloe, you don't have to. I can handle things myself," he brings one of his hands to rest on the back of her head and gently pushes her towards his chest, letting her small frame be drowned by his big one. 

"Are you sure?" She brings both of her arms upward and intertwines her own fingers behind his neck. 

"Very much so," 

"Mommy! Where are my..." their moment is cut short by the nine-year-old girl that walks into the living room barefoot because she couldn't find her shoes. "Oh..." she says, taking in the picture before her and quickly putting on a big grin on her face. Lucifer and Chloe pull away immediately at the interruption, trying to make it seem like nothing was going on. Those were the moments where Chloe thought it was counterproductive having such a smart daughter. 

"What is it, Monkey? What did you lose?" Chloe asks as she approaches her daughter, trying to act as if nothing had happened. Trixie looks at her with a smug smile plastered on her face. 

"Are you two together?" She asks directly and not so innocently, suddenly not caring about the fact that she was barefoot. 

"Ehm..." Chloe stutters, not knowing what to answer. the last man Trixie had known about had been Pierce, and she had taken her sweet time to tell her about him. Would it be okay to tell her now? After just getting together? Lucifer looks at her and for the first time, she realizes he doesn't know what to say. "I..."

"We..." Lucifer tries to give her an explanation but he can't get a word out of his mouth. Everything felt far too awkward.

"You are!" The little girl shouts, smiling widely and seemingly liking the idea. "I knew it!" Chloe frowns confusedly at her. 

"Wait, you're happy?" Lucifer asks her, not understanding why she would be. From the little information he had about children, they tended not to like when their divorced parents found someone new. Maybe Chloe was right and Trixie was, indeed, very special. "Why are you happy?" 

"Well, you seem to make my mommy really, really happy and I really like you. Not when you leave, though, I don't like you when you leave. And I just won a hundred bucks so..." Trixie explains, locating her shoes and walking to get them. Both adults were pretty shocked, to say the least. 

"Well... That's kind of a simple train of thought," Lucifer adds, thinking about the child's logic. 

"How come you just won a hundred bucks?" Chloe questions her, putting both her hands on her hips and looking at her daughter quite seriously. 

"Maze and I bet on you two getting together," she says simply, leaning against the wall to lift up her foot and put one of her shoes on. 

"You did what?" Chloe wasn't happy. She wasn't happy at all. 

"Maze told me she thought you'd never get together, and I thought you would, so we bet on it," she puts on her other shoe, grinning smugly. "And I won," 

"You didn't win anything, young lady. You don't get to go around betting on people's lives, that's just wrong," Chloe scolds her while Lucifer just looks at them amusedly, grinning to himself and choosing to not say a word. "When I see Maze I'll tell her not to give you anything," 

"Oh, but mom!" Trixie complains, stomping her foot ok the wooden floor. "But I did get it right, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did, but you will not be profiting off of it. Go get your backpack, I'll start on your breakfast," Chloe deems that as the final decision; Trixie wouldn't be getting money off of her bet, that was for sure. She, grumpily, does as she is told and goes into her bedroom to get her backpack ready, leaving the adults on their own once again. "Can you believe her?" Chloe walks to the kitchen, grabbing a pan and putting some oil on it. She would be making eggs on toast the way her father used to when she was little. It was really easy and quick as well. 

"I underestimated your daughter on so many levels. That child's a genius," Lucifer comments, following after Chloe and sitting down on one of the stools she had in her kitchen. 

"Of course you'd say that," Chloe says, cutting the holes on two slices of bread. She wouldn't be having anything for breakfast since she was still a little bit nauseous. "I can't believe she bet on us getting together,"

"Well, if my expertise on children tells me anything is that I think you should actually be happy about this. Not the betting situation maybe, but the fact that she took it so well... us, I mean. That was important to you, wasn't it?" She puts the slices of bread on the pan, stopping midway her task to look at him and think that what he said was actually pretty sensible. 

"Guess you're kind of right there," she admits as she cracks one of the eggs inside the hole she made on the bread slice. "She did take it really well," 

"See? You got what you wanted. You don't have to worry about that anymore,"

"Yeah, and it's not like Maze is around to pay up so... yeah," Chloe says, suddenly forgetting that Lucifer had come back from Hell only the night before and that he probably didn't know Maze was away.

"What do you mean?" Lucifer asks, showing the tiniest bit of concern towards the demon. 

"Uh, she... when she found out you left she kinda left, too. Not to Hell, though, I think she's just doing a bit of soul searching," Chloe explains shortly, concentrating on getting breakfast ready so they could leave.

"That's preposterous! Demons don't have a soul," and of course, the one thing he would focus on was Chloe's misunderstandings of the divine and demonic. At that, Lucifer sees Chloe's expression so he tries to make it better. "She'll come back soon, she's not one to be away for too long, she gets homesick,"

"I wouldn't be so sure, Lucifer. She seemed pretty hurt the last time I saw her," with that she turns the stove off, grabbing two extra pieces of toast to make a ham sandwich with them. It was kind of new, she never tried it before, but she hoped they liked it. 

"Believe me, she's done this before. Besides, it's not like I've known her since the creation of Hell, so..." 

"Yes, you're kind of right there. You do know her better than any of us do," Chloe agrees, putting down one of the plates in front of the devil and the other one in front of an empty chair. She then reaches towards her fridge and cabinets to grab orange juice and a glass respectively, setting up everything for Trixie's breakfast. "You want coffee or something?" 

"No, I'm fine, thank you," Lucifer respectfully declines the offer, looking at the breakfast invention sitting in front of him. It didn't look like the most appetizing thing in the world but it did smell good. That had to count for something, right? "You're not going to have breakfast?" He sees Chloe tense up for a brief second and then relax.

"Uh, no. I'm not hungry during the mornings," she says quickly, sitting down on one of the other stools. Truth to be told she was still scared that she would throw up, even after taking the medication, so she would just wait and see how she felt before eating. 

"You've lost a bit of weight," the devil comments, digging into Chloe's invention which did taste good after all. 

"Why are you so aware of my body?" She asks, resting her chin on her hands and looking at him with a special shine on her eyes. She just couldn't believe he was hers to have, to love. 

"Well, as you've said before, 'I've been trying to get you into bed since day one', so it's only logical I'd be aware of it... of you," Lucifer reasons, pointing it out to be something simple. "Moreso now that I finally did get you into bed, so... are you okay?" 

"Yeah, yeah. I just... let's say that you leaving got me a little bit sad, and when I get sad I tend not to eat," and she was actually telling the truth right then, although it could only be applied for the first month and a half of his absence. Lucifer smiles smugly at that, leaning over the table and looking at Chloe with a hint of mischief in his eyes. "Don't let your ego get loose, though,"

"Oh, I'm most certainly not," he teases, liking o hear that she had been sad. He knew already that it had been torture for both of them, but hearing Chloe say it was just that tiny bit better, a tiny bit more reassuring. "I know you missed me and I missed you just as much, if not more," he reaches out and grabs one of her hands, warmly giving it a squeeze.

"I know," Chloe looks down, letting herself blush a bit. 

They didn't talk much after that, just sitting down and having breakfast together in peace. Trixie joined them a couple of minutes later, talking about school and the assignments she had, feeling overall excited and letting it be known. Trixie was still being herself, which was good, the only thing would be she was a tiny bit happier. Both adults were greatly surprised by her reaction, Chloe because of how composed she was and Lucifer because he thought the child wouldn't like them together in the first place. 

Chloe used the time they shared together to watch Lucifer, to try and perceive how he was reacting to being with Trixie, hearing everything she had to say. Her daughter was nine years old and it would be a long way before their baby reached that age, but it wouldn't hurt getting to know how he'd be with children around. She could tell he was uncomfortable, but he was pulling through alright. 

She was just so unsure, so hesitant about telling him. She had just got him back, and telling him she was pregnant would probably drive him away, scare him away even. She wasn't sure if she would be able to tolerate that again, being on her own. It would hurt her to the core if he chose to leave her because of the baby; their child was someone she hadn't even met and she already adored him or her with all the love available in her heart. She would never understand how someone would be able to run away knowing that they left their child behind, how they would be able to ignore a love of such kind. 

Chloe loses herself in her own mind, letting Trixie and Lucifer carry on with the conversation. The one and only word that could describe how she felt was 'terrified'. The fear was running through her veins alongside her blood; fear of being left alone again, fear of not being able to care for her child, fear that the whole divinity thing would just overcome her. She had to worry about so many things: keeping her baby safe, making sure no one ever knew about its divinity, living with the fact that even if Lucifer chose to stay with her, the day would come where they would never see each other again. She was human, she would leave earth, die eventually and even if she went to Hell... she would be locked inside one of the rooms Lucifer told her about, she would most likely never leave. She knew she had said that loving was worth the heartbreak but truth to be told she wasn't so sure anymore. Everything was just so overwhelming, so real and yet so unbelievable that it was messing with her head. 

With those thoughts clouding up her mind she stood up and cleaned the table, doing everything in silence, going over every single thought countless times. Neither Lucifer or Trixie questioned her silence, they just tagged along, grabbing their things and getting ready to start on with their day. They didn't even think she was being weird or anything, just her normal and quiet self. Eventually, they got inside the car, preparing themselves to let life go on as it normally would; Trixie getting ready for another school day, Chloe getting ready for another workday and Lucifer tagging along, silently excited that he would get to go to work again. 

When Chloe started the car and drove off to Trixie's school, she did so with a tight smile plastered on her lips, and a thousand a one questions littering on her brain, questions that she would have to wait to have answered.


	8. Chapter VIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Quick update here! Truth to be told, I had never updated as fast as I did today, what's got into me?
> 
> This is just a short, barely 4k word filler that shows a bit of fluffy deckerstar and some Ellaness, too. Hope you like it. I had to give you one more chapter of peace before the drama starts hitting these two once again. 
> 
> Today I found out that Lucifer season 5 only had one more week of filming before wrapping up and because of fucking COVID-19 they had to shut it down. I'm so fucking mad about that, I hate this virus even more now. 
> 
> Oh, by the way, I got mixed up with Trixie's age. She's nine but there's a chapter where it says she's ten. I'm going to change that right away. 
> 
> As always, keep up the commenting and kudo-ing so you make this one (1) girl very happy, and I'll see you in chapter nine!!
> 
> Stay safe. All my love, Rena.

"Hey, are you okay?" Chloe doesn't know how but she managed to get Trixie to school and herself to work without even noticing she was driving. It had been as if one moment she got into the car and the next one she had arrived; she had been lost in her own mind for the whole duration of the trip. She had to be thankful that nothing had happened on the way there. With the little attention she had put to her driving it was a miracle that they hadn't died in a car accident.

"Uh?" She asks disoriented, turning her head to face the passenger seat. She then finds Lucifer looking at her worriedly, so she smiles to try and act as if she was okay.

"I asked you if you're okay? You drove all the way here without saying a word,"

"Uh, yeah, just... Doing a little bit of overthinking, that's all," that much was true. She was, indeed, overthinking. She was thinking about their future, about the moment Lucifer finally found out she was pregnant, about their relationship and what they would do about it at work, about the fact that she was growing a being that with only eight weeks of gestation had taken down a fully grown angel by itself. Yeah, that last one, in particular, had been the protagonist of her driving thoughts. She just hadn't had enough time to process all that happened the afternoon before, to acknowledge the fact that her unborn child had most likely saved her life.

"What about?" Lucifer sits on the passenger seat so he's facing his girlfriend, adopting a relaxed pose and waiting for Chloe to answer.

"Just... I mean, what we're gonna do with work and us... That kind of stuff," maybe that wasn't what was predominantly on her mind, but they did need to talk about it sooner or later.

"What do you want to do?" He asks then, tapping his fingers on his right leg.

"I don't know... What do you want to do?" She asks back, not wanting to be the first one to say what she thought. As always, she preferred to be reserved about her personal life at work, so the obvious answer would be to just keep their relationship quiet.

"I'm fine with whatever you want, actually," he was being pretty considerate and calm, which was so not him but still, she couldn't blame him. He had just come back from an eighty-year exile in Hell.

"Could we...? You know I like to keep things private, right?" She starts, hoping the devil won't feel bad about what she was going to suggest.

"I most certainly do," he adds a nod to his statement, reinforcing his point.

"Well, then, could we... Just keep it quiet? For now at least?" Lucifer gives her a sympathetic smile, knowing that all that was going through her mind wasn't just what they would do about their relationship with their workmates. He knew there was something else bothering her, something deeper, but he wouldn't push her. There was no need to make her feel sad.

"Of course we can, muffin," he reaches out with his right hand and interlocks his fingers with hers, squeezing lightly to reassure her. Now that he thought about it, he had never been one to be awfully aware of people's emotions, as a matter of fact, it was actually the opposite. Guess finally falling in love did change him just a tiny bit.

"Thank you, Lucifer. It means a lot," Chloe gives him a tight but genuine smile, squeezing his hand back and liking the gesture. Lucifer leans forward and softly pecks her lips, making her smile grow wider. "I love you," she confesses for the umpteenth time, growing used to the touch of his lips on hers.

"And I, you," he brings his hand up to her cheek and gives it a loving stroke, taking in the breathtaking beauty of his _girlfriend_. That term sounded so weird, so not them. The perfect word would be 'partner' but it still felt wrong using it to describe their relationship. They had been partners for more than two years already, now they were more than that. "We should..." He lingered there, lost in the blue of her eyes.

"Get out of the car, yeah," he nods then, trying to pull away but being held back by his detective. "But wait, not without a proper good morning kiss," she leans forward towards him, taking in the beauty of his smug face.

"I'm liking this new you," he lets their mouths linger less than an inch apart for just one more second before giving in to the temptation and kissing her like she deserved to be kissed. Their lips met shyly at first, but lost all kind of inhibition a couple of seconds into the kiss, letting the couple explore and delight in the taste of the other. It was when Lucifer's hands tried to make their way from her face to her waist that Chloe pulled away, still determined to get to work on time. She knew that if she let him get his way, they would never leave the car.

"And that's enough," she says, pecking his lips lightly one more time before reaching to her left side to unbuckle herself. She checked the time then and noticed they still had five minutes to spare. How they managed to get to the precinct before nine o'clock was completely beyond her. "Come on, we got a murder to solve," the devil smiles at her and opens the door on the passenger side, stepping out of the car and straightening the wrinkles of his shirt. Next time he spent the night at Chloe's he would remind himself to bring a spare suit.

Chloe locks the car and waits for Lucifer to walk around it so they can go into the precinct together. She was hoping no one would suspect anything, and she was counting on that because it wasn't the first time they arrived at work together. The only difference from before was that now she knew what they were, and the love bites littering her skin could very well prove it.

They stepped inside the building and Lucifer was immediately greeted by the biggest smile coming from Samantha, the woman at the front desk. Chloe had painted such a horrible image of his departure that no one actually thought about the possibility of him coming back. Samantha was pleasantly shocked, to say the least. She briefly told him how everyone had missed him and that it was so good to have him back, all while Chloe stood here, biting her lower lip and pretending she wasn't paying attention. She wouldn't get mad again at the fact that everyone moved on from him, that everyone just didn't have him in their thoughts once he left. When he was still gone she had wished to be one of them, to be able to move on from him. She had been angry at them because they were able to keep on going with their lives and she just couldn't, be it for emotional or physical reasons.

When Samantha finally stopped talking, Chloe made a beeline to her desk, ignoring everything on her path. She truly wasn't in the mood to deal with all the questioning and while she seemed to be angry, she wasn't. She could hear Lucifer's footsteps following from behind her but didn't pay much attention to them, focusing rather on the gasps and exclamations of joy from her workmates to see that the devil was back.

She made it to her desk a couple of seconds before the Prince of Darkness did, immediately grabbing the case file that was on it and opening it up to start her day. She was determined to solve that case, just like with every other case.

"Chloe, are you sure you're okay?" Lucifer asks right when he catches up to her, looking at her worriedly. Chloe gives him a genuine and reassuring smile, loving the attention but unable to keep all of her worries out of her head. "You don't look okay,"

"Well, thanks for that," she says jokingly, looking at the dark eyes of her lover. "I'm fine, really. Just got a lot on my mind, that's all," and it's the truth, she really does have a lot on her mind, she's just not ready to open up about it.

"Are you sure? Do you want to talk about it?" She was endeared by how sweet and attentive he was being, which was so not like his normal devil self.

"I'm okay, Lucifer," she says, closing the case file and putting all of her attention on her favorite devil. "I'll deal with it whenever I can, which is not now. Right now we have poor Gary Acampora's murder to solve,"

"Right, —" just as Lucifer was going to ask for information on the case, Ella pops out of nowhere and gives the highest, the most mind-numbingly high pitched squeak of joy. The fact that she was excited was the understatement of the millennia. 

"I told you so!" Her four words directed specifically at Chloe make even more eyes turn towards them. Just having Lucifer there had made a lot of heads turn already, but with that scream, the numbers had doubled.

"You told me what?" Chloe asks, covering her right ear with her hand given the fact that Ella had practically screamed in it.

"Luce! I'm so glad you're back!" She says then, hugging the devil tightly, much to his discomfort. Lucifer's face was a poem.

"So did I, Miss Lopez," he says uncomfortably, trying to get his arms out of the tight hug. Chloe watches them amusedly, smiling genuinely and enjoying the fact that Lucifer was so not a person to have touch intimacy with. Chloe herself may very well be the only exception to the rule.

"How was everything back home? How come you're back? Chloe told us that you wouldn't be back, she made it sound as if you were dead or something," Chloe looks down to the floor at the mention of him dying while Lucifer immediately puts his gaze on her. They would have to talk about more in-depth about how they felt while being apart and everything that had changed.

"Of course, I'm not dead," he states, looking at Chloe still and sighing of relief when Ella finally breaks her tight hug. He really despised physical contact. "Things back home were torture. I'm glad I was able to come back," he smiles like he used to; bright but not too genuine. "One of my brothers was able to take my place during the family drama so, here I am, ready to consult," he looked at Chloe again, catching a glimpse of her smile.

"Thank God we have you again. We all missed you so much!" Ella tried to go for a hug again but Lucifer was able to read her and stood back, wanting to avoid the uncomfortableness. Lucifer hears Chloe snort slightly at the mention of God, which makes his own smile grow wider.

"Well, I would normally tell you that my father had nothing to do with it but I would be lying if I did so," he goes for an honest answer, watching how Ella's face was still portraying her excitement. "And I'm not so sure _everyone_ missed me. Take Daniel, for example,"

"Uh, yeah. I don't think it would be a good idea to go talk to him. I don't know why but ever since you left he's been a tiny bit angrier at you," Ella says, finally letting her semblance falter at the mention of Daniel. She could perceive he was angrier at the idea of Lucifer, she just didn't know why.

"Truth to be told, I don't care about him. Ever since I came back I've been the happiest little devil," he looks at Chloe briefly as he says that, obviously hinting she was the reason for his happiness. 'When had she not been the reason for his happiness' would be the right thing to ask.

"Let's pretend I don't know who the reason for such happiness is, okay?" Ella says, completely catching on with the fact that Lucifer was clearly referring to Chloe. Her smile grows exponentially as she looks at Chloe, then at Lucifer, and then back to Chloe again.

"Let's say I just missed Earth," Lucifer adds, smiling smugly. When Chloe told him she wanted to keep things private he, of course, understood. However, he had been able to predict the fact that somebody would find out and that somebody would, of course, be Ella. She always seemed to be at the eye of the storm.

"Yeah, 'cause your home is where, on Mars?" Ella laughs, bumping her fist on his arm as she did so. "See? I told you he would come back. He always does," the forensics scientist directs herself towards Chloe this time, smiling sweetly at her. Chloe smiles back to her, not wanting to feed Lucifer's ego by telling him she talked about him with people. She could be pregnant and her life may have completely changed, but she still held her pride close to her heart.

"Further away, even," the devil answers, smiling smugly.

"Yeah, right. Of course, Hell," the scientist says, rolling her eyes and smirking, probably thinking he was a method actor. No matter how many times he told her otherwise, she would always think he was acting. He had thought about telling her but he had overheard a conversation she had with Chloe about not wanting to know if Heaven and Hell were real because she didn't want to lose her faith. He wouldn't be the one to ruin that to her.

"So..." Chloe interrupts, bringing attention to herself. "Any news on the Mexican Drug Cartel case?" She asks, half sitting on the corner of her desk, trying to get the devil and the scientist out of the chit chat and on with work.

"Yes, actually," Ella composes herself, giving all her attention to Chloe. "Our victim, Gary, had traces of skin under his nails, which means he fought with someone before dying, more specifically, a woman. I ran it through our database but it came out zilch, so maybe a girlfriend? A friend?"

"Yeah yeah, that's good. His father is coming down to the station to make a statement later today, I can ask him about a woman there," Chloe takes the sheet Ella hands her and places it inside the case file, already more animated that she had a new lead. "Thank you so much, Ella,"

"You welcome, Decker," Ella says, smiling widely still. Chloe hay yet to see her do anything else but smile. "Lucifer, so glad you're back, buddy. You should throw a welcome home party! Lots of dehydration and drugs, no bombs this time, please" she bumps her fist on his shoulder as she suggests the party; the eyes of the devil briefly meeting with the ones of his lover.

"Sure thing!" Truth to be told, Lucifer hadn't even thought about a party. His mindset had been shifted completely the moment he realized he had fallen in love, a party wasn't one of his priorities. He, however, smiles when Ella gives him two thumbs up before turning around to walk towards the lab.

"If you need me for anything else, you know where to find me!" She walks away dancing slightly, making both the devil and the detective laugh.

"So... So much for keeping our relationship private huh?" Lucifer says once Ella is a safe distance away. Chloe frowns slightly, being thankful that figuring out she was pregnant wasn't as easy.

"You think she knows?" She asks him, closing the case file on her hands and looking up at her partner with worried eyes.

"You don't?" He walks up to her; dark eyes shining with what could only be described as love and adoration.

"Ugh, I'm so bad at keeping secrets," she scoffs then, placing the file on her desk again and slightly slamming it against it.

"Yeah, you kind of are," the devil agrees, nodding as to reinforce his statement. Chloe looks at him with slightly offended blue eyes and a gasp. "What?"

"I don't know, I was expecting maybe a 'no you're not, muffin, Ella probably doesn't know anything,' or something of the sort," she says, imitating his accent during her impersonation.

"You know I don't lie," is his answer, which the only thing it does is make Chloe look at him with smaller, more offended eyes. "But, if millennia of being the devil taught me something is that secrets can be good only for so long. They will eventually backfire, they always do,"

"Talking from experience, are we?" She teases, smiling softly.

"You know, in Spanish, there's a saying that goes like 'the devil is wise because of his age, not because he's the devil'," he says, looking at how doubts and questions settled inside his detective's mind. "Más sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo," he says in perfect Spanish, seeing how Chloe's pupils dilated slightly.

"You're hot when you speak other languages," Chloe confesses in a whisper, liking how her devil's voice sounded in Spanish, all low and sexy.

"Am I?" He says teasingly, being answered by a nod of his detective's head, all while she barely bit her lower lip with her top teeth.

"But seriously, how old are you?" She asks then, having wanted to know that ever since she found out about his true nature.

"I don't know," he answers simply, putting his hands on his trouser's pockets and resting his right hip against the seethrough divider right beside Chloe's desk.

"How come you don't know? You don't have a birthday?" Lucifer shook his head, smiling small.

"I was created before the concept of time was even a thing. My birthday, per se, is on the day I left Hell and came to live here," he explains, remembering the last birthday party he had thrown. It seemed like ages ago and truth to be told, he almost always forgot about it.

"So you're what, seven?" Chloe laughs a little, making the devil frown amusedly.

"Very funny, detective," he fake laughs, looking at her with the shine of love in his dark eyes. "I look much younger than I am,"

"So much for that, huh?" She teases again, liking the topic of conversation. She couldn't deny that the exchange had a flirtatious tone, but to be honest she didn't care much about who might have been listening.

"Well, I purposefully look to be about thirty-six or thirty-seven," the devil explains, meeting a confused Chloe rather than her teasing self.

"Wait, you can change how old you look?" She asks dumbfoundedly. Whenever she thinks that divinity cant surprise anymore, a thing like that happens and she is proven wrong. She had never been proved wrong so many times in her life.

"Of course I can, darling," he says matter of factly, smirking like his usual self.

"That's good then. This means that when I turn sixty we both can look to be about sixty," it's right after the moment the words come out of her mouth that she realizes how big of a commitment she had talked about. If they were still together when she turned sixty, that would mean twenty-five years of relationship. She sighed then, thinking it was a lot. Their child would be twenty-five years old by then, it seemed to be so far away in time.

"I'm glad you're thinking about the future," the devil comments, smiling softly and reassuringly when he saw the first signs of panic rise up on his detective's face.

"You are?" She asks confusedly, thinking that for one, he would be the one to freak out about what she said. The devil nods at her question.

"Makes me happy," Chloe frowns at him, expecting a completely opposite reaction. Lucifer picks up in that so he continues his idea. "Opposite to what people might think, I don't have commitment issues. Well... I do, but only if I'm not really interested, which is not the case with us. So, you can rest assured I won't run away any time from now," and yet, after those beautiful words, Chloe can't help it but think negatively about the moment he found out she was pregnant. He would surely want to run away then. She smiles either way, silently thanking him for his words.

The rest of that day goes by pretty uneventfully. Lucifer and Chloe try to keep their relationship private still but everyone they encounter looks at them smugly, which ultimately makes them think it's useless to keep trying to deny it. They don't talk about it, though, so for the day at least they would try to keep denying it.

Chloe managed to talk to Dan alone sometime near noon. Lucifer had gone to the vending machine to get her a sandwich —which, by the way, he completely despised. He had questioned her why out of every option there was she would choose tuna, mayo and corn. Her normal self would have never gone for that one in particular but her pregnant self thought it was a good idea—, so she approached Dan's desk and tried to explain things to him. He was initially angry at the fact that Lucifer was back, walking into the precinct like he owned the place and so oblivious to everything. She had to tell him he didn't know about the baby yet and that she still needed time to tell him. Basically, she told him that for now, she didn't need him to go in and tear the devil's eyes out. She also told him that everything had gone well with the ultrasound, which was a complete lie but out of the things she could actually tell him without sounding crazy, it was what was true. He had seemed relieved and happy for her for a small fraction of a second before Lucifer came back with Chloe's sandwich. At that, Daniel chose to silently leave, not wanting to tempt his luck and stay to see what happened. Chloe silently thanked him for that.

After that, they just went back to their normal routine: questioning suspects, going to the crime scenes, going on stakeouts to find suspects, police work in general. Truth to be told, Chloe had never felt happier to have Lucifer back. Of all the times she lost him and then he came back, that one had by far been the most rewarding of all. She knew she could fully count on him, which was a kind of relationship, a kind of bond she had never had with anyone. She had missed her favorite devil so much.

Later that night, after speaking to the victim's family and girlfriend, they went their separate ways. Chloe was itching to tell him to go back to hers but for some reason, she was unable to. Besides, she also wanted to have one on one time with Trixie, talk about the baby and just do things they couldn't do if Lucifer was around. She spent all the way back home trying to convince herself that it was healthy for them to take some time apart for themselves as well, and that it would actually be unhealthy to just jump from being separated to being together constantly.

She smiled as widely as she ever had when, upon her arrival to her department, the first thing Trixie asked was why Lucifer wasn't there with them. She briefly explained that he would go to his penthouse for the night because he didn't live with them and that it was actually really healthy for couples to have time on their own. After that, they proceeded to talk a bit more about the baby, about their expectations, about their days and with the brightest smile on her face, Chloe put Trixie to bed and read her favorite bedtime story for her, feeling happy about the fact that everything had gone smoothly.

After all, she did have a beautiful family and a beautiful partner that made her life that more special. The only thing now was getting rid of the big secret that was slowly but surely eating her soul away. 


	9. Chapter IX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello to you all!! Here's a little 9k monster to help your quarantine go by easier.
> 
> Guys, can you explain to me how we are at almost 5k hits and 300+ kudos? You are so amazing, you bring me so much joy, thank you!!
> 
> So, this is finally kind of the chapter you were all waiting for. Some of y'all called me out on my bs of having Chloe being so insecure and taking so long to tell Lucifer but 1) you have to understand her, she's just afraid he might run and with good reason, and 2) yeah, sorry but the finding out won't be that smooth because I'm a drama loving bitch. If everything goes according to plan it resolves on the next chapter though, so I won't have you on the edge for too long. 
> 
> Sorry if there are any mistakes but it's 2.20 am where I live and Grammarly has done the best she could. I guess one day I'll just go over all of this and edit it. 
> 
> Stay safe and inside, you beautiful people!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Two weeks had gone by since the devil had come back to earth and chosen to stay. Two weeks of what to him had been pure bliss, pure happiness, days of love, sex, work, two whole weeks of Chloe all to himself. Those two weeks had been filled with cuddle time, with learning to know each other all over again, he just had his heart so full it was going to burst. Hell, he was so in love that he planned a date for him, his detective _and_ her spawn. When he told Chloe where they would be going and that he planned it all around what nine-year-olds could and couldn't do, Chloe almost burst into tears of joy, loving the fact that Lucifer was actually making an effort to connect with Trixie. Now, if it only meant he would take the news of his impending fatherhood any better... Still, he was happy inside his ignorance, the happiest he had ever been, and he wouldn't trade that for anything. 

Chloe, as expected, hadn't told him about the baby. She just couldn't give in, everything was so perfect, sweet and idyllic that she had to keep the secret to herself for just a little while longer. She was so afraid Lucifer would reject her that she plainly suppressed any kind of thought about her baby in order to be able to enjoy all the beauty of the honeymoon stage they were in. She wasn't ready to give him up, to have him run away from her again. If he ever did that, which was highly likely, then blame her for wanting to make all the memories possible before it happened. For her, it had been two weeks of enjoying everything their relationship gave her, making memories and holding on to him as tightly as possible because deep inside her heart, she knew that what they had wouldn't be endless. 

In those two weeks that had gone by, the slight curve that made her belly during afternoons and evenings had turned into a small, really tiny bump on her lower abdomen. All her baby needed was fourteen days to change, to grow and make her pregnancy a constant, even if she wanted to forget about it. There was no moment of the day where that tiny bump wouldn't be present, she would wake up with it, slightly smaller because she wasn't bloated, and often go to sleep with it in its full size. Truth to be told, she was afraid Lucifer would notice since he seemed to know her body so well, he was so aware of it. She loved her baby so much but sometimes she just wished it would freeze its growth and give her and Lucifer more time to be just the two of them. Sadly, biology didn't work that way, not even the celestial kind. Deep inside her heart, she knew she would have to tell him rather sooner than later. 

Regarding work, well... everyone had already figured out they were together. Let's say they weren't the best at keeping things at bay, especially PDAs, and if we're being completely honest, most of them were on Lucifer. All it took was for the devil to sneak a peck on Chloe's lips during work hours and Ella walking in on them for the whole precinct to finally have the confirmation that deckerstar was a thing. That had been a day full of teasing, laughs and "I told you so's" but more than that, they had been showered with congratulations and love from their workmates, making them feel like maybe it wasn't so bad sharing bits of their personal lives anymore. However, they were really glad that the overexcitement eventually died down... three days later but still, they felt like they could breathe again once they weren't the center of attention anymore. 

Coming back to the present, Chloe and Lucifer were trying to figure out a new routine. Working together was slightly easier when there wasn't a relationship in between them, and now that there was, they also had to handle a whole new aspect of life that wasn't there before. Sometimes, fighting over a case would make ugly feelings linger for longer and affect their personal lives, or vice-versa, which was something they were still learning how to handle. They had to focus on how not to act all lovey-dovey while working if they wanted to have a healthy relationship. 

Their current situation was a rather comical one. Chloe was doing police work and paperwork on the case of a woman in her late thirties murdered by blunt force trauma to the head, all while Lucifer was sat beside her, whining about how boring it was, whispering dirty things in her ear or playing with her stapler. Outsiders might wonder how they managed to work like that but truth to be told, Chloe was completely immune to it, she had grown so used to him that he was like an appendix. It might have been the two years they have been working together. 

"How are you not wanting to kill yourself? This is so boring," Lucifer complains, spinning on the office chair as if he were a child. No one would even guess he had been alive since the beginning of time. "I found a new cause of death for this woman: boredom," Chloe smiled small, shaking her head and feeling slightly endeared. 

"Every case is boring to you unless it involves drugs," Chloe says without even looking at him, grabbing the case file and going over the leads they already had. "Or hot women," she adds, still having a hard time picturing Lucifer as a committed, monogamous devil, even if it was to her. "Or both,"

"Luckily for you, I have my eyes set on one, and only one woman," he says flirtatious, sliding on the office chair to get closer to his detective. 

"You have, huh?" She says back, momentarily taking her eyes off her paperwork and flirting back. Truth to be told, her eyes were hurting of how much time she had spent looking at tiny writing and computer screens. 

"I most certainly have," he briefly lets his eyes wander to her mouth, then back to her eyes. 

"Who's the lucky lady, then?" 

"She's sitting right in front of me," she blushes slightly, still trying to get used to the endless complimenting and attention she was receiving. She just loved him so much.

"Oh! I'm flattered," she leans forward and briefly pecks his lips, not before making sure not too many people were looking their way. "I love you, silly"

"That was so sweet! I love you guys together so much," and of course, the only one whose excitement hadn't died down had to be Ella. She was thrilled that they finally got together, having suspected that they had feelings for each other for a long time now. 

"Of course, you do," Chloe said, faking annoyance and briefly resisting her forehead against Lucifer's. The forensic scientist smiled widely; brown eyes shining with glee. "Any news on our case?" Chloe asks, having pulled away from her partner and composed herself. 

"Actually yes," Ella says, unable to stop smiling. "Our initial CoD had been the victim fell on the scene and hit her head against the glass coffee table, right? But check this, I went over the autopsy report and her wound was made with a heavy and rounded object, not with glass," she talks fast and excitedly, moving her hands to the rhythm of her speech. 

"So she was purposefully hit on the head," Chloe assumes, grabbing the autopsy report Ella was handing her and looking over it. 

"Exactly. This, my friends, second-degree murder, totally a crime of passion," 

"Candles inside the room, silk sheets on the bed. It adds up," Chloe agrees, remembering the whole picture of the crime scene. "She was a widow, she couldn't have been having an affair. Maybe she was with a married man?" 

"Could be," Ella agrees, finally letting her smile die down. 

"What do you think?" Chloe directs herself to her partner and significant other, who seemed to be busy texting on his phone. "Lucifer!"

"Oh, sorry. What were you saying?" He asks, looking up from his phone to the two women. 

"What's wrong?" Chloe asks, completely forgetting about the case. He had seemed to be very concentrated on his texting. 

"Oh, nothing. Just Linda telling me she can't make it on Thursday for my session and asking me if I can go now," he explains himself, looking straight at Chloe. "Do you mind if I go?" He asks her, and Chloe notices how it was one of the very first times Lucifer actually cared for what she needed. Having that happened six months prior and he would have just gone straight to Linda's without even asking. She couldn't help the smile that she gave him. 

"Sure, babe. I'll call you if anything," Lucifer smiles gratefully at her and quickly pecks her lips before standing up to leave. 

"Love you, muffin," Chloe gives him her usual whipped-in-love smile, ignoring the fact that Ella was watching the whole interaction. 

"Love you, too," Lucifer holds Chloe's gaze for just a second before snapping out of his 'I'm in love' trance. 

"Miss Lopez," he respectfully nods at Ella before making his way towards the exit of the precinct, quickly texting on her phone, probably to Linda. 

"You guys are so in love!" Ella squeaks right when Lucifer gets out of her auditory field, making a couple of eyes turn their way. "You have to be the cutest couple I've ever seen," 

"You said the same thing when I was with Pierce," Chloe points out, trying to sit more comfortably on her chair. It was nearing three in the afternoon and her jeans had already got too tight for her to feel comfortable in them. 

"Yeah, but deep inside my heart I always knew deckerstar would triumph," Ella speaks excitedly, placing her hands on Chloe's desk and resting her weight on her arms. 

"Yeah, sure, you totally knew," Chloe speaks with sarcasm, smiling at Ella. She could get so emotionally invested in so many things, she should totally get her own significant other. 

"I... you have to understand! I got so caught up with the idea of Pecker babies and how blue their eyes would be that I couldn't think of anything else," Chloe smiles tightly, not being a fan of Ella working the word 'baby' into that sentence. "Not that deckerstar babies would be ugly, they'd have that beautiful dark hair Lucifer has and..." Ella was rambling a lot, and it was managing to make Chloe feel uncomfortable. Through the detective's mind went the thought of telling Ella about her pregnancy. Sooner or later everyone would find out about it, and she really felt the need to discuss how she felt about telling Lucifer, her fear, her anxiety. She couldn't do that with Dan, he hated the guy, and it wasn't like Linda was around much since she started working again. With that thought in mind, Chloe took a look at Ella's face as the scientist kept on rambling about babies and with that she made a decision. She was sure she would start showing pretty early, given that she was ten weeks along and already had a bump (tiny but it was still there), she had nothing left to lose, right? "... And of course, I'm so going to be the godmother of your firstborn," Chloe caught that bit and smiled, remembering when Linda had said the same. 

"Ella. You'd want me to baptize the devil's child?" Chloe questions her, giving her a small and incredulous smile. 

"Well, if you put it that way..." she thought about it, having forgotten about what she thought was Lucifer's act, just his devil persona. If she only knew... "It'd be like baptizing the antichrist, wouldn't the church like, burn down or something?" 

"Actually, I need to speak with you. Can we go to the lab? Somewhere... more private?" She took a deep breath in and suggested that, preparing herself mentally to let the fifth person of her circles know about her pregnancy. She was sure Ella would have a nice reaction to it, there wasn't anything that wasn't nice about her but still, she couldn't help it but feel nervous. Ella gave her a concerned look, drastically changing her semblance. 

"Is everything okay? Did I go too far with the deckerstar babies stuff?" She asked worriedly, afraid she would have messed up in between all her rambling. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No babe, everything's okay. I just need your help with something," Chloe stood up from her desk chair wishing she could just undo the button of her bluejeans, she felt far too uncomfortable. 

"Are you sure?" Chloe went to the other side of the desk and grabbed Ella's hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. 

"I'm sure. Can we just..." Ella nodded her head fast, making her way towards the lab with a very nervous Chloe by her side. She was breathing in and out deeply, trying to think positively.

Lucifer finding out about their baby was imminent, and she really needed to talk about it with someone, sort of be told what to do. She just was terrified of losing him, but she also knew that the longer she dragged things out the worse it would be for him. Lucifer would already be heartbroken that she had taken so long to tell him, having only been two weeks since he came back to earth, she didn't know how worse it would be if she waited a little longer. 

"What's wrong, Chlo?" Ella asked, already noticing that something was bothering her friend. Chloe kind of felt bad for not telling her earlier, she was such a good friend to her. She exhaled loudly, preparing herself to open up. 

"Okay, I need you to just hear me out. Don't say a word until I'm done, okay?" Chloe asks, finding it would be easier if she could just get it all out her chest before the questioning began. 

"Is it something I did?" Ella asks, completely ignoring what Chloe asked of her. 

"Not at all, it's just... it's something mine and I need to know your opinion, okay?" Ella nods, sighing of relief when she finally understood that she had done nothing wrong. Blame her but she had already been scolded for something she didn't even realize she had done. 

"Hit me," Ella says more relaxed, ready to listen to her friend. Chloe takes a deep breath in and then lets it all out. 

"Okay, so... I'm kind of two and a half months pregnant with Lucifer's child right now," Ella's face morphed into an expression of excitement mixed with surprise; eyes rapidly diverting to Chloe's midriff. "And I know we've only been together for two weeks but I need to tell him and I don't know how, and I just feel so guilty that I haven't done it already," Chloe's palms were sweating, she was just so nervous; the mere idea of telling Lucifer made her feel nauseous. "I'm just so afraid of what he might do. You know, he hates children and I don't want him to leave me again but I just... sooner or later I'm going to really start showing and I have to tell him, I just don't know how," Chloe stayed silent after that, waiting for Ella to say something to her, to tell her how she felt about it. Truth to be told, she was afraid she might have shocked Ella too much with that. "So...?" 

"Woah," she breathed out, alternating her gaze between Chloe's face and her seemingly flat stomach. No one would even guess she was expecting thanks to the cardigan she was wearing. Now that she thought about it, since she would have a summer baby she'd have more time of the winter to keep things quiet and conceal her baby bump with more clothing. Not that in LA temperature dropped much during winter but it still had to be a good thing, right? 

"I really shocked you, didn't I?" she asks her friend, smiling tightly. 

"Uh, no. I just... I really wasn't expecting that, no pun intended," Chloe laughed half-heartedly at that, loving how Ella would always point stuff out like that. 

"Believe me when I say, me neither," Chloe rested her bum against the table in the middle of the lab, trying to bring back her heart to a normal rate. 

"So, wait. You're two and a half months pregnant?" Chloe nods at that, seeing how Ella was putting two and two together. "How is it his...?"

"We slept together right before he had to go, so it had to be then," Chloe explains, trying to keep the story short and simple. She, of course, had to keep out all the divinity from the matter, her fear of literally bearing a baby that had taken down a fully grown anger at eight weeks of gestation and such, so on itself, the story wasn't that complicated. 

"Chloe, babe, you have to tell him. He deserves to know, that baby is almost as his as it's yours," Ella says with worry in her voice, reaching out to grab Chloe's hand and give it a squeeze while the detective only looks down at the floor. 

"I know... I just... I don't want him to run away, he will freak out," Chloe argues with her voice small, honestly not being convinced about what she was saying anymore. 

"How do you know that? Huh? It seems to me that ever since you two got together he's been changing and for the better," and Ella was right there. Lucifer had planned a date with Trixie in it even if he knew he would be uncomfortable, he was making an effort, all for her. He actually spent time with them while they were at Chloe's, with both of them, and maybe he wasn't ready to admit it just yet but maybe he was starting to like children after all. 

"I really don't want to be without him, I just... I know I'm being selfish but I'm just afraid. I've known him for two years and every time things get to too much, he runs. He's done it before, what's stopping him from doing it now?" Chloe tries to reason, she tries to justify herself, why she's kept such a big secret from him for so long. 

"You are going to be what holds him back. Chloe, I don't think you see this but the guy has heart eyes for you, he's had them ever since I met you. I don't think he will give that up, not when he's just got you," and again, Ella did have a strong point there. Lucifer loved her, she didn't have room to doubt that, she knew deep inside her heart that the guy was head over heels for her, she could feel it. Would he really give her up because of that? "And if he does run I'll chase him and kick his balls up into his neck," Chloe snorted at that, loving that she had such beautiful and caring friends to look out for her. 

"I really have to tell him, don't I?" Ella nods as she smiles, holding both of Chloe's hands into hers and squeezing them, trying to give her friend a bit of support. 

"Look, if there's something I know is that secrets are no bueno, much less to a relationship. How long have you known this for, hun?" Ella asks, still smiling softly in order to reassure Chloe. Even if she knew how her friend felt about telling Lucifer, she still didn't know how Chloe herself felt about being pregnant. Maybe she didn't really want it after all.

"About a month now, I found out pretty late," Chloe sighs and looks out of the half-covered window. When she sees no one looking their way, she opens up her cardigan and places a hand on her growing bump, gesture that doesn't go unnoticed by Ella. "I kind of already have a bump and everything," Chloe lifted up the shirt she had underneath the cardigan as if to prove a point. Underneath the fabric of her high waisted blue jeans, the small bump was underlined. 

"How do you feel about this? Do you want to have this baby?" Ella asks, trying to keep her own emotions out of the matter. Chloe sighs then, going for the full truth. 

"I'm terrified, scared shitless..." she says and sees Ella's face morph into a sadder expression. "But I'm also so damn happy, I love this baby so much," 

"You are?" Ella asks with a happier voice tone, finally able to let Chloe know how she felt about it all through her expressions and all. She felt so happy for her, so happy that she was happy. She had done good by not acting all excited without knowing how Chloe felt about being pregnant, life had taught her that the wrong way. 

"I am," Chloe says as she nods, pacing both of her hands on her lower abdomen, smiling to herself. 

"Then come on, bring it in!" Ella opens up her arms, signaling Chloe that she wanted a hug and Chloe, for the first time, doesn't say no. She walks the few steps that separate her from her friend and hugs her, feeling contained and cared for. She would never find a better friend than Ella. "Congratulations! I'm so happy for you! Still, you gotta tell Lucifer, okay?" 

"Thank you, Ells. Thanks for hearing me out, and yes, I will tell him. I'll have to stop being a coward," Chloe says; face buried in the crook of Ella's neck. 

"Yes, you have to," Ella runs Chloe's back, trying to comfort her still. "And Decker, we're not finished here, there are some things I need to know," Ella says firmly, finally being the one to pull away from a hug. Chloe just felt so comfortable. "How come I'm only now finding out about this?" She reproaches, faking an angry face and bumping her fist on Chloe's arm. 

"Sorry babe, I just... I had a lot on my mind, sorry," Chloe apologizes half-heartedly, not wanting to admit the real reasons why she didn't want to tell her, Ella would feel bad. 

"Oh my God, I just hit a pregnant person! Are you okay?" Chloe frowns at her, not even taking notice of what she meant by that and then remembering the fist bump to her arm. 

"Ella, I'm pregnant, not sick. I can take it," Ella just smiles from ear to ear; happiness overflowing her petite frame. Chloe sometimes wondered how it was possible that so much emotion would fit into such a tiny body. 

"I'm still that child's godmother, I'm telling you," Ella kind of threatens, making Chloe smile and shake her head. She was so glad Ella was in her life. 

"I don't think it'll be baptized and if it is... Linda called dibs first?" She says it as a question, expecting Ella to get really mad about it. She was known to be very passionate about the things she wanted. 

"How could she?! I'm so going to have a conversation with her," Ella said with an offended tone of voice, shaking her head and crossing her arms upon her chest. She quickly wipes her disappointment off her face, seeing that it wasn't really something important to the moment. Chloe needed her and she would always be there for her. She gives her a sympathetic smile and holds her hand, showing her support. "But seriously, you gotta tell him, Decker, and just trust that everything will turn out just fine," 

"Thank you so much, Ella. I really needed to talk about it with someone," Chloe smiles, feeling more grateful than ever to have such a good friend in her life. 

"I'm here for you, Decker. I've got your back,"

"Thank you, babe," she walks up to her and hugs her again, feeling more relieved than worried. Ella was right, it was Lucifer's right to know about their child, she couldn't keep hiding things from him. It had been two weeks of secrecy already, it was time she put a stop to it. 

So it was set then, Chloe would tell him. For a brief moment, she wondered if she should do something cute to deliver the news but she quickly decided against it since well... they weren't actually looking to get pregnant, the news itself wouldn't necessarily be happy or nicely welcomed. Even with the knowledge that there was a rocky path ahead, she still felt happy that she had decided on telling him, it was about time. She left Ella's lab with a smile on her face and her worry having significantly subsided.

The rest of the afternoon goes by pretty uneventfully. Chloe gets some more intel on the case, which she's really grateful for, and she just works with what she's got for a while. She interviews the victim's best friend, a woman named Erica and her husband, but doesn't get much out of them, only that the day of the murder she left her home at five-thirty am to go to work and that at the time of the murder she was at the local supermarket, picking up stuff to make her sons dinner. Her husband, on the other side, had dropped their three sons off at school and had gone to Las Vegas on a business trip, only to come back earlier today because he found out about Alice, the victim's, death. She also asked them if they knew if Alice was seeing someone given the crime scene, but they told her they didn't know anything about it. The only reason Chloe interviewed them in the first place was because they had been one of the last people to see Alice alive, but Erica had an ironclad alibi since the cameras at a local supermarket verified her statement, and Greg's could be checked with the friend he was staying with.

She went over the evidence she had quietly for about an hour then, trying to make some connections between the victim and her circles. Erica and Greg were Alice's next-door neighbors and close friends since high school, and they seemed to be really shaken up by her death. Interviewing the marriage's children would be useless because their oldest was barely twelve years old, it probably wouldn't draw out any useful information. The victim was a widow, she had an eighteen-year-old daughter called Gabriella that could make a statement but the girl was pretty shaken up, too, having been left alone for good since Alice was all Gabriella had. Chloe had heard the girl would be coming in some time that afternoon to make her statement but she didn't want to pressure her too much. She understood what it felt like to lose a parent at such a young age. 

By the time she was finally able to talk to Gabriella, Lucifer had already come back from his therapy. They met her together at the interrogation room and as expected, the poor girl was bawling her eyes out, not understanding why she had to give them a statement if she hadn't been on the crime scene, she wasn't even a suspect. 

"Hello, Gabriella. My name is Chloe, he is my partner. I know you're going through so much right now but it would really help us find out what happened to your mother if you could talk to us," Chloe says with sympathy on her voice, wanting to reach out and give her physical comfort. Lucifer was quiet beside her, sitting down and just backing her up in case anything happened. He wasn't so good at interviewing heavily shaken up witnesses. "I know what you're going through, I lost my dad when I was nineteen,"

"You did?" The brunette girl looks up; beautiful green eyes covered with tears. Chloe nods at her question, reaching her hand out and placing it over hers. 

"It was the worst day of my life. He, too, was killed. He was a cop and... I, being a cop now, understand how useful it is to have all the information you can get. If you know something, you have to tell us, we really can use all the help we can get," 

"I... I don't know how to help you, I literally know nothing about it," Gabriella says, trying to hold back her tears. 

"Did you know if your mom had a boyfriend, someone she was seeing?" Chloe asks, knowing by how the crime scene was that the woman was not alone. It looked kind of picturesque, even, like a romantic getaway. 

"No, not that she told me about," the girl shook her head, wiping her own tears with her hands. 

"Could you tell us how your day went. What did you do yesterday?" Chloe's voice is soft, talking Gabriella through it all. Truth to be told, the image of the girl was hitting a little bit too close to home, reminding her of the day she had to give a statement about her father. She was thankful Lucifer was by her side because even if he wasn't holding her hand she still knew he had her back, his presence was enough. 

"I... we woke up. We h-had breakfast together and drove to school as we always did. She... She was a history teacher at the school I go to. We got back home at four-ish and I started on my homework while mom was just doing house chores. She told me she would go meet with a friend at seven and that she'd spend the night there so I wouldn't worry," Gabriella goes over her day, trying hard not to cry about it all. She was still in so much shock. 

"Did you do anything else, go out again, anything?" Chloe asks, looking at her in the eyes and trying to make her feel comfortable. 

"I... around six I went to auntie Erica's house to pick up my spare uniform for today. O-our washing machine is broken so we were doing our laundry at theirs," 

"But neither of them were home, how did you get in there?" Chloe wonders, remembering that Erica made it home at around seven-thirty and her husband was in Las Vegas. 

"Uncle Greg was there. He handed me all the clothes we had there and left. He seemed to be in quite a hurry," the girl explains, suddenly opening her eyes wider at the realization that Chloe didn't know Greg was in town. 

"He told me he was in Vegas," she mumbles to Lucifer, trying to keep it low but failing, which means Gabrielle heard her. 

"Do you... do you think he did it?" The girl asks, wiping away the tears and looking at them with pure shock written on her face. 

"We don't know that but you've been of so much help, Gabriella," Chloe speaks, trying not to disclose too much of her hypothesis. "I... is there any chance you know what car Erica and Greg have?" She already had an idea of how to place him at the scene of the crime. 

"Yeah, they have a grey Ranger Rover, can that help?" Gabriella answers, gradually stopping her crying. 

"Yes, thank you so much. I'll call you if we need anything else or when we know what happened, okay?" Chloe stands up, wanting to divert the topic of conversation away from the fact that Greg was most likely the killer. She had called his friend in Vegas to check for Greg's whereabouts but he could have easily told him to say that. They needed to find that man now. 

Gabriella gives Chloe a tight hug before leaving and through tears she begs to her to find the person who did that to her mother, making Chloe's eyes go glassy as well. Given the fact that she was once on that girl's place plus all the hormones running through her body, she felt like it was okay to let herself get a little emotional. She wouldn't be able to avoid it even if she tried, so she just breathed out and let a tear escape her right eye, getting in touch with all those nasty emotions from sixteen years ago.

"Muffin, are you okay?" Lucifer asks her once Gabrielle is out of sight, looking concerned about her. 

"Yeah, just... she reminds me so much of me when my dad got shot, I..." Lucifer smiles sympathetically at her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his chest, trying to give her some comfort. They stood there without saying a word, just breathing in the scent of the other. "Thank you," she breathes out eventually, pulling away from the embrace just a little and getting back in touch with herself. 

"You're welcome," Lucifer says softly, wiping away a single tear that was running down her cheek. 

"We gotta find more evidence on this guy," her voice was surer, more confident, and just like that she was back to her detective self. Someone had to give that woman and that poor girl justice. 

They quickly went to Ella's lab, and after making some faces at her that were ultimately understood as: 'I haven't told him yet, don't say anything' on Chloe's side, they got ready to find some evidence on Greg. All they had by then was purely circumstantial, they had to find something that would place him at the scene of the crime. Ella had found two glasses and had extracted a print from one of them but it would take them ages to run it through California's Public Records, so they had to find something else. Luckily for them, accessing traffic cameras wasn't that hard and Chloe happened to know which kind of car the man was driving. 

So they did that. Ella quickly got the security and traffic cam footage of the night of the murder and indeed, they showed Greg getting down from his Range Rover at the hotel at seven sharp, and they also showed him leaving at around one am, placing him with the victim at the time of death. They and everything they needed, they just had to find him now. 

Chloe was quick to grab one of the precinct's phones and give Erica a call. She briefly told her they had a couple more questions they wanted to ask her husband and if there was any chance she knew where he was. She told them he had just left to Calabasas for a conference he had to give for work the next days, that they had an apartment right by the hills and he was going to spend the night there so they didn't have to pay for a hotel. Chloe though was quick to realize that the man was most likely running away.

"Calabasas is forty minutes away from here, we'll get there right on time," Lucifer says, hopeful that they'll get to the murderer.

"If you drive like the maniac you are we'll get there even earlier. Come on, he just left, I've got the home address, we gotta leave now," Chloe says impatiently, grabbing her things and pulling on Lucifer's sleeve.

"Are you sure about this? You could go tomorrow, you'll get here late if not," Ella suggests, looking at Chloe worriedly. Of course, now that she knew she was pregnant she had yet another person to look out for her as if she were made out of porcelain.

"We're gonna be back in no time," Chloe manages to drag Lucifer out of the lab and into the parking lot, all with Ella profusely telling him to drive carefully.

They get into Lucifer's Corvette and start their drive to Calabasas. Thankfully traffic wasn't that bad since it was dinner time for most people, which meant that the usually forty-minute drive up to the hills was fulfilled in half an hour. Chloe spent the entirety of the drive there thinking about her conversation with Ella and telling Lucifer, which did her some good because right before they arrived, she swiftly implied that they had to talk later. It was like that time they were trying to date when Chloe had just gotten back from Europe, she had to mark the date on her calendar. By telling him that they had to talk she had already set the foundation of what would certainly be a difficult and though conversation.

When they get to their destination the sun has already set. Being mid-November days were starting to run shorter and colder, which meant that driving up the hills in a convertible hadn't been one of their most sensible ideas. However, they are glad that when they park the car right outside of Greg's house the lights inside are on, signaling there's someone in there. Chloe quickly makes sure her gun is on its holder and gets out of the car, delighted that she could stand up and her jeans would no longer constrict her abdomen. They make their way up the stone path leading to the house bot knowing what to expect. She shouldn't have doubted of him in the first place but she was definitely glad she had because upon confirmation it seemed that he was far more guilty than he let on.

"Greg Hightower, LAPD!" She shouts as she stands by his door, letting Lucifer be the one to do the knocking. Paying attention to the sounds coming off from the inside of the house she notes that the ruffling and moving get significantly more erratic. "Open the door!"

"Detective, may I?" Lucifer suggests, clearly implying he wanted to kick the door open.

"Don't, he might come and open it,"

"Chloe, the man is clearly guilty. He's undoubtedly trying to run away, I don't think he'll do this the civilized way," the devil argues, clearly on a rush. Neither of them wanted their suspect to run off.

"Be my guest," she says, moving away slightly to let him kick the door down. He does as he is told, putting on a rather spectacular show and if they weren't about to apprehend a suspect Chloe would think it was incredibly hot watching him tear a door off its hinges. She enters the house first, pulling out her gun and pointing at whatever was in front of her. "Greg Hightower, LAPD! You are under arrest for the murder of Alice..." and then she can say no more. Stepping into the living room there's Greg, shakingly pointing at them with a gun of his own. Lucifer quickly puts a hand in front of her, trying to force her to go behind his back but she remains on her place.

"Greg, darling, we don't wanna do that," Lucifer tries, keeping his hand over Chloe's midriff and trying to get her to stand behind him still. Chloe would not move from her stance, not even sparing a second thought to the fact that Lucifer's hand was completely splayed over her abdomen.

"We have footage placing you at the hotel at the time of Alice's death. It was you, wasn't it?" Chloe tries a more subtle approach than she normally would, being the one at the ending side of a gun. He's clearly shaken up; his hands are trembling, he's about to break down crying, he really doesn't know what he's doing. "What happened?" Her voice is soft, careful even.

"I am so fucked," he mumbles; trembling gun in hand. "I... I didn't want to kill her, you have to believe me!" He shouts, getting progressively more threatening. "I loved her!"

"I know, Greg, I know. And I know you don't want to kill us, too. Put down the gun so we can go down to the station, huh? Things will be easier if you cooperate," Chloe tries, knowing she failed when she sees the man approach them with the gun in hand. "Okay, okay! See? I'm putting it down," she kneels to the floor and leaves her gun there, thankful to her past self that thanks to a gut feeling had strapped another gun to the inside of her boot. "Tell me, what happened that night? What went down at the hotel?"

"W-we... we met up a-and we fought because she asked me to divorce Erica and I had already told her I wouldn't. She... she threatened me with t-telling her so I grabbed a statue and... I. I didn't want to do it! It was an accident!" His hand was trembling more and more by the minute, signaling he was getting more and more nervous.

"I believe you, I do," Chloe says, putting her hands up and trying to remain calm herself. She would never get used to having a gun pointed at her.

"Now I'll tell you what's gonna happen, okay? I will grab my things and leave through that door and you will not follow me anywhere, is that clear?" Greg tries, holding on tightly to his duffle bag and looking at them with the eyes of a mad man.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Chloe mumbles, getting ready to quickly crouch down and grab her other gun if she deemed it necessary.

"Well, then you're gone, too," he removes the lock on the gun, trying to intimidate them. Chloe notices then that the gun isn't automatic, he would have to charge it again before shooting two consecutive shots. That should give her enough time to get her own gun if anything happened.

"Okay, okay! We can work things out. T-think that if you kill us... if you kill a cop your sentence will be even worse," she tells him, trying to convince him to drop it. "They're gonna find you and it's going to be worse than it already is,"

"I don't care! My life is ruined!" He starts to walk towards them, only to stop at a couple of steps because of something that happened right before his eyes. He gets so surprised that he trips and falls backward, hitting harshly the floor.

"Sure it is!" Erica, Greg's wife barges into the house crying, holding her own gun and aiming it at him. "You cheated on me, you bastard!" Her hand is also trembling and she's profusely crying. Chloe truly couldn't understand how she put two and two together and made it to the house. "And with my best friend! Now bitch's dead, guess karma is a bitch,"

"Erica, sweetie," Greg tries, clearly without any shot possible from the floor given that when he fell his gun ended up far from him.

"Don't. I'm not your 'sweetie', you lied to me! And now you're going to Hell, too," Erica removes the lock on her gun and right then Chloe decides it's the right time to intervene.

"Don't!" She shouts. "Don't kill him, it isn't worth it," Erica takes a look at her for the very first time, directing her psycho eyes at her instead of her husband.

"What can you know about what's worth it?" She says sarcastically, gun still pointing at her husband.

"I know he's failed you, in so many levels, and you have every right in the world to feel the way you do," Chloe tries, turning her body towards her and standing right in the line of fire. Lucifer tries to stop her but it's to no avail as she's already facing the deeply hurt woman. "But killing him isn't worth it,"

"Someone's got to punish him! He's got to go to Hell!" Erica argues, pointing her gun at Chloe this time. Since Lucifer can only watch, he chooses to keep his eyes on the man on the floor to look out in case he reaches for the gun or something.

"And we will punish him! He's trash, he'll rot in prison for the rest of his life," Chloe says, hoping the woman would just understand and put down the gun. "You, on the other side, you are hurt. He did you wrong and he's gonna pay for that, but you don't have to," she can see the woman is torn. She's still pointing the gun at her but she can see her semblance is faltering. "Think about your sons, what will happen to them if you go to prison, too?"

"I am doing this for my family!" Erica cries as she listens to what Chloe has to say.

"All your family needs right now is you," the detective starts again, trying to bring Erica some peace. "I have a family, too. I have a nine-year-old daughter who always hugs me tight when I drop her off at school because she's afraid that hug will be our last one. And truth to be told, all I want to do right now is go to my house, snuggle with her on the couch and read her favorite bedtime story to her, which by the way, is Coraline," she briefly wonders if she should mention the fact that she is expecting to try and stop Erica from killing them but she decides against it. She was desperate, yes, but Lucifer didn't deserve to find out about it in such circumstances. With that in mind, she chooses to have it as an ace under her sleeve if things get a little bit too rough. "And then I'd like to lay down with the man I love and be glad that we brought someone to justice that day, that we did the right thing," she says that looking straight at Lucifer, letting Erica know he was the one she was referring to. "But that's not up to me, and it never is. Every day when I get out of my house in the morning I do so with fear of not coming back, of never seeing my daughter again. And right now, if she gets to have her mom to read her favorite bedtime story for one more night... that's up to you,"

Erica visibly struggles with hearing the words Chloe speaks, positioning herself as the mother that might not get to see her children ever again, walking a mile on the shoes of her sons who would have to live their life with both of their parents in jail. Her eldest son, Milo, was barely twelve years old and her youngest, Leo, was only five. They needed her just as much as she needed them, she couldn't fuck up the rest of her life because of her impulses, because of a man who was clearly not worth it.

"He is not worth losing your sons, he is not worth spending the rest of your life in jail," Chloe insists, being those the final words Erica needs to hear to slowly but surely put her gun down and break down crying even more.

"I'm sorry," she cries harder and Chloe approaches surely, wanting to hug her and comfort her. However, right before she gets to her she hears the clicking of a gun, but she's far too late to do anything about it.

"No!" Greg shoots, aiming at them, all while Lucifer throws himself at him, maybe to try and avoid the bullet getting anywhere near his detective.

The bullet hits Erica, wounding her right under her right collarbone but having grazed Chloe on its way there. Lucifer uses the charging time of Greg's gun to grab it and throw it away, apprehending him and pinning him to the floor, all while Chloe falls down together with Erica to apply pressure on the wound. Her breathing is heavily troubled, and she screams out in pain the moment Chloe presses on her wound with all her strength, pulling the portable radio out from her pocket and requesting for backup.

"This is unit 831 requesting back up to Calabasas. I need an ambo and I have a suspect to apprehend," she talks through it, knowing they'd track the location of her radio and get to her with the help. "It's okay, you're gonna be just fine," she tells the woman currently laying on the floor and crying out of fear.

"I don't wanna die," she mumbles with labored breathing, looking straight into the blue of Chloe's eyes and asking for help.

"You're not gonna die, the ambulance is on its way," Chloe reassures her, pressing harder on the wound. She doesn't even care about the wound on her arm, too focused to keep Erica alive.

"Did I... did I do the right thing?" She asks lowly; tears filling her eyes once again.

"Yes, yes you did. You not only gave my daughter another day with her mom, but you also saved three lives," Chloe praises her, trying to make her feel better about what she had just done.

"Three lives?" The detective nods, already setting her voice down to a lower volume.

"Yes. You just saved my partner, me, and the baby we're expecting," Chloe says really lowly as she smiles down at her, holding up the pressure and making the woman wince.

"I'm so sorry," Erica's watery eyes go from her face right to Chloe's stomach, making out the tiny curve that was her bump beneath her shirt.

"It's okay, you were a hero tonight,"

Chloe stays with her, applying pressure to the wound up until the ambulance arrives and tells the doctors what happened so they can help her out more efficiently. The backup she requested for arrives rather quickly, only five minutes later and it's Dan the one who gets there on a police car to help her out with the arrest and such. Lucifer is the one to hand Greg over to the other policemen so they can cuff him and is quick to walk to Chloe to make sure she's okay, to wrap her tightly in his arms.

"Are you okay?" He carefully puts her hands on her cheeks, inspecting every square inch of her skin to determine if she was hurt or not.

"I'm fine, I'm alright," she presses her forehead against Lucifer's to emphasize her point, drowning herself un the touch and the security it gave her. "It's okay,"

"I was so scared, I thought he'd shot you," he brings down his hands over her shoulders and down her arms, making her hiss when he brushes over the bullet graze on Chloe's left arm. It is at that moment precisely when Dan decides to walk in.

"It's okay, it's just a tiny graze," she says to Lucifer when she sees his semblance grow worried, reaching up her right hand to softly caress his cheek. He grabs her arm carefully, taking a look at the wound and looking hurt by the fact that she was hurt.

"Chloe, are you alright?" Dan approaches them, popping their personal bubble.

"Yeah, I'm alright," she says, already seeing that Dan would make a fuss about it and trying to calm him down.

"No, she's not. The bullet grazed her on the arm," Lucifer speaks, contributing to the growth of Daniel's worry.

"Guys, really, I'm fine. It's just a tiny scratch," truth to be told, it barely hurt anymore and it was no longer bleeding, so much that Chloe was impressed at the fact that she was already so well off.

"It did what? Chloe, you have to get that checked out. Come on, the ambo is still outside," Dan suggested, also taking a look at her arm. Even if it was as clear as water the fact that she was fine they still felt the need to be overprotective over her.

"For one, I agree with the douche. You have to get that checked by a doctor," Lucifer agrees, interlocking fingers with her right hand and walking out of the house so someone at the ambulance could assist her, Daniel walking ahead of them.

"Injured officer, graze to the arm," he announces as they walk up to the ambulance, letting Chloe be the one facing the doctors. Inside it was Erica, laying on a stretcher and being looked after by two paramedics.

"I really am fine, it's just a tiny graze," Chloe tries to explain to the blonde paramedic that's facing her, showing her arm so she could asses her wound.

"Be careful with what you give to her, she's pregnant," and as the words leave Daniel's mouth, Chloe's neck snaps right in the direction of Lucifer. It all happens like in slow motion.

She can see how his face changes, how his semblance of worry slowly morphs into confusion, starting up by his eyes. His furrowed brow relaxes and his eyes turn round, not understanding what was going on until it hits him. Then, the mere intermediate of confusion shifts to hurt and disappointment, anger even. Truth to be told, his face holds so many dark emotions during that fraction of a second that it's impossible to pin them apart individually. He just looks so hurt, betrayed, and Chloe thinks that probably what's going through his mind is the old rule: 'celestials and humans can't procreate', which meant he probably thought she had cheated on him.

Shit, things were even worse than she had expected.

He just stands there; mouth agape and eyes holding all kinds of negative emotions, looking at her like she just stabbed him in the back. Chloe just wanted to cry because that wasn't at all how she wanted things to go, how she wanted him to find out about their child. Of all the possible outcomes, that one had to be the worst by far. And what is worse, Lucifer stays there with her and Dan up until the paramedic finishes bandaging her to make sure she was alright, still showing worry instead of doing what he clearly wanted to do which was fly away.

The minute the paramedic says Chloe is just fine and is ready to go, Lucifer leaves. He walks at a fast pace to his car, not giving Chloe the chance to follow after him so they could talk, not even giving her a second glance. He gets inside of his Corvette and with one last, painful look at her, he leaves the scene, driving off into the street, giving himself the right to feel bad over his own broken heart.

As a very wise devil once said: ' _Secrets can be good only for so long_ '.


	10. Chapter X

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This has to be by far the quickest update I've ever made. I just couldn't have you guys suffering over the ending of last chapter. I literally wrote almost 2.8k words last night and the rest tonight (around 5.3k total)
> 
> I hope you guys like how the finding out and awful conversation turned out. I'm not too convinced myself but hey, it is what it is.
> 
> Keep commenting and kudo-ing, you have no idea of how happy that makes me (even if it is to insult Dan, go and unleash your hatred for him on the comments section haha). I love you all so damn much!
> 
> Stay safe and inside, and don't forget to wash your hands!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

From the moment the word 'pregnant' left Dan's lips, everything had been complete and utter chaos.

Needless to say, the ride back to the precinct had been done under the most uncomfortable silence to ever exist on its first half, and as a rainfall of apologies on the second one. Dan had fucked up, he had fucked up very badly and the gravity of it all could be understood because Dan himself could realize how awful his slip up was. He had never apologized so much in fifteen minutes.

Chloe of course, couldn't have it in her heart to stay mad at him for too long, after all, he was just worried about her. It was difficult to believe but the commentary hadn't had any malicious intent at all, it was just to make sure no one gave Chloe something she couldn't take but still, Dan couldn't help it but feel bad about it. Even if Lucifer had been the one to get hurt the most out of that situation, Chloe had to be the one that felt the most betrayed, as if Dan had failed her, which he kind of had. He blatantly revealed Chloe's most treasured secret to the one and only person she was having trouble to talk to, and even if it was with good intention, it still stung deeply into her heart.

They arrived at the precinct forty minutes after Lucifer left the crime scene, having immediately left the place because of obvious reasons. Chloe felt desperate, she had to get to Lucifer as soon as possible so his mind wouldn't eat itself away thinking of things that didn't, nor would ever happen. She would never cheat on him, she would never break his trust like that, and even if she hadn't, Lucifer didn't know that.

"Are you okay?" Dan asked her once they parked the police car on the precinct's parking lot. Chloe was about to collapse, to be honest, so the question had been rather rhetorical.

"Seriously, Dan, do I look okay?" She really did not. For starters, she was completely disheveled; her hair was a mess, one of her favorite cardigans was lacking a sleeve and there was a tight bandage wrapped around her arm and cutting off her circulation. She felt far too nauseous even if it was night time and she just wanted to lay down next to Lucifer and be glad that nothing worse had happened, like them dying, for example.

"No, you don't," Dan is fool enough to say, walking around the car to stand in front of her.

"Thank you!" Her voice is filled with irony as her eyes pierce their way into Dan's. She really wasn't mad at him, she wasn't. She just had more pressing issues to attend to rather than paying attention to her ex-husband. "I need to get to Lucifer, like right now. Could you go pick Trixie up at mine? She's with Olga,"

"Sure, sure. Do you need anything else?" Chloe shakes her head, taking deep breaths in to try and alleviate her unsteady stomach. Truth to be told she just felt like throwing up her lunch on the nearest garbage bin but she had to overcome it.

"I'm fine, really, I just need to get to Lucifer. He must be overthinking his mind out right now," she says, walking away to her personal car and swiftly getting into the driver's side.

"If you ask me for my opinion I think the guy's a prick. He finds out he's having a kid and runs away?" Chloe could sense the 'I told you so' on Dan's tongue.

"Good thing I didn't ask, and just to clear things up, you have no idea of everything that's going through his mind right now, so if you'll excuse me, I have a shitton of apologizing to do," Chloe starts her car, warming up the engine.

"You're really going to apologize to that dick?" Dan argues, standing over the window on the driver's side of Chloe's car.

"Bye Dan," she says as her last word and drives herself out of the precinct, hoping and thinking about so many things but mainly hoping her stomach would allow her to complete the drive to Lux without any inconveniences.

She's most certainly not proud of how she drives. It's literally the first time in her thirty-five years of life she breaks more than two laws consecutively while driving and she can't bring herself to feel sorry about it. All she needed right then was to see Lucifer and tell him everything, to make sure his mind wasn't wandering off into dark places with the little information he had by then.

Worst case scenario: Lucifer was thinking that Chloe had cheated on him given the fact that he most likely believed celestial beings and humans could not procreate. Best case scenario: he had run out of the crime scene because he was freaking out.

Even if the best-case scenario was what Chloe wanted to think was happening, she had seen the hurt and betrayal on Lucifer's eyes as he left, there was no way he was just freaking out over his impending fatherhood. Which was worse because he wasn't even thinking about the possibility of fathering a half-human child, which meant that Chloe would also have to deal with all of that.

Lesson learned, though. No more secrets.

She arrives at Lux about an hour after she last saw Lucifer's broken expression and hurt eyes directed at her. It was around eight and on a weekday, thing she was thankful for because, in her mind, the club wouldn't be too packed. Wrong guess, because right after stepping out of the car she notices the long line of people waiting to get themselves dancing on the devil's dance floor. Luckily the bodyguard at the front door already knew her to be Lucifer's girlfriend, which meant she wouldn't have to go to the end of the line to get inside.

It takes her a good ten minutes to make her way towards the elevator, trying her best not to bump against all the people there and asking for permission, just to be polite. For a Monday night, the place was unbelievably packed, and she really didn't want anyone to spill their drink over her or accidentally hit her bump, which meant that she took her sweet time to get to the elevator. She wasn't about to risk falling down a flight of stairs because she wasn't looking where she was going.

Once in the elevator though, her worry for her safety goes down, but her anxiety significantly increases. She was about to face a deeply hurt version of the man she loved, and she despised seeing him hurt. She sighed loudly then, assuming the fact that she would have to be strong for the three of them.

"Don't worry darling, we're gonna be just fine," she places her hand over her bump, which by then was just a tiny bit more prominent than usual. Eating and basically going through with her day would make her bloat, which would make her look more pregnant than she actually was.

The elevator opens up its doors on the last floor, letting Chloe into the penthouse where her love was. Right then her heart was beating at its fastest, really fast, and she was just so worried about how the outcome would be, about the casualties there would be.

She is quick to find the devil; his muscular silhouette is sitting down at his grand piano with his fingers barely grazing over the keys. He stops playing immediately once he hears the elevator doors open, but he doesn't turn around to see who arrived at his home. He takes one last drag at his cigarette before tapping it against the ashtray and letting it burn down there, still not acknowledging the presence behind him.

Chloe takes a couple of tentative steps towards him, realizing he's not wearing his usual suit but rather a long, silky rob; hair disheveled making him look like he was having a tough time. He most certainly was, and it was all Chloe's fault.

"Lucifer, can we..." she sighs loudly, nervous as to how to approach the devil on such a delicate matter.

"Oh well, hello there detective," he was wearing his mask again, and Chloe won't lie and say that the lack of the usual pet name hadn't hurt. He brings his gaze down to her stomach, barely covered by her shirt and jeans, as he pulls an unreadable face. "I hear congratulations are in order," he quickly looks up again, making it clear that it was uncomfortable for him to look at Chloe's small bump.

"Lucifer, let me just..." she tries to approach him but he's quick to stand up and walk around the piano, putting distance between himself and his loved one. Well... if that. The impending conversation would either make or break their relationship.

"Detective Decker, do tell, who's the lucky fella?" He speaks looking straight into her eyes, which makes it hurt just that tiny bit more. He lifts up his glass and downs the rest of his scotch in one go; indifferent gaze never faltering. "Who was the one who had the pleasure to bless you with their child, huh?" Chloe looks at him with hurt in her eyes. Even if she can understand where Lucifer is coming from and why he thinks what he thinks, it still hurts the fact that he believes she would cheat on him. "Was it Dan the douche? Are you going to happily rebuild your marriage?"

"Lucifer, come on, you know I wouldn't do that," Chloe tries to reason, hesitating about walking closer to him. She needed to be held and she needed it badly. "You know I love you,"

"Oh! But do I?! Do I really know you?" He asks and for the first time since she arrived, Chloe is able to hear the pain and the betrayal on his voice. She can't help it but feel even more guilty. "As I recall you once told me you would never purposefully hurt me... well, so much for that," he walks away to his bar, pouring himself another glass of his favorite scotch and looking at his detective from afar. His chest just felt so tight that it physically hurt. "I would offer you a drink but well..."

"Can we just talk about this like the adults we are?" Chloe asks with tears on the brim of her eyes; emotions getting the best of her. Now the nausea she was so worried about had completely flown to the back of her mind.

"Sure! Let's sit down and talk about how you betrayed me, slept with another man and got pregnant with their child. Shall we?" He walks towards his Italian leather couch, holding his hand out so Chloe would sit. She, however, remained standing.

"I did not sleep with another man," she says that deeply hurt, looking straight into the darkness of the devil's eyes. She felt mad and hurt at the attitudes he was having but she also felt shitty and guilty for even allowing herself to feel that way. She had no right. "I would never do that to you, haven't I told you how much I love you?" He looks disappointed on himself for about a fraction of a second, only to then go back to his passive-aggressive ways. 

"So what, then? Immaculate conception? Detective, we both know celestials and humans can't procreate," he argues, sitting down on his couch and slowly drinking his scotch.

"You know, Charlie, _your_ nephew, says hi!" She is unable to keep her frustration at bay, letting herself be overflowed by so many emotions and sensations. She just wanted to cry, place her head on his chest and be told everything would be all right.

"That's impossible..." he mumbles, sighing loudly and painting disbelief in his beautiful eyes.

"I don't care what you think right now but I would never, ever, cheat on you, Lucifer. I know that and I'm at peace with myself," Lucifer's semblance falters at the strength and presence of Chloe's words. "And I know you have all the right in the world to be mad at me right now because I kept it from you. I'm even mad at myself for doing that," she slowly but surely makes her way towards the devil, careful as to avoid having him run away. "And for that I'm sorry, I should have told you the minute you landed back on Earth," His formerly strong and insensitive semblance was long gone, being replaced by the one of a man who feels and is hurt, but who also begins to understand.

"Chloe, I..." he tries but soon he finds himself at a loss of words, not knowing what to say.

"No no, let me finish," she interrupts him, finally making it so she's standing right in front of him. "The truth is: I'm terrified, Lucifer. I'm afraid. I have so much uncertainty going around all this pregnancy thing and so many things that I simply can't explain about it. There are only two things I'm sure about and they are that I love this baby with every fiber of my being, and that it's yours,"

The devil remains silent, but his eyes speak plenty. They are loaded with fear, with uncertainty, and they slowly but surely make their way down her body and situate themselves on the curve of Chloe's stomach where right underneath the layers of clothing, skin, and muscles was a little blob that was theirs. Needless to say, he was quietly freaking out, not believing the situation he was in.

"I can prove it to you," Chloe says, seeing him quietly freak out. He was left speechless, completely and utterly wordless.

Chloe doesn't know what she's doing. All she knows is that she needs a way to finally make Lucifer believe in everything that's happening, so if she can prove their child is a celestial being, well... then all doubt should be resolved. Proof is what always helps her believe in things, it was the least she could do for him.

She had seen the injury to her arm on a couple of occasions before it was bandaged up. She could tell that from the moment the bullet grazed her to when the paramedic wrapped the bandages around it her injury had already healed a bit. From what it had been at the very beginning and if her hypothesis was correct, it should have subsided by then.

"You saw me get hurt with the bullet, right? You saw me bleed," Lucifer nods slowly, unable to tear his eyes off of Chloe's midriff. He slowly brings his eyes away from it as he sees her fidgeting with the bandage on her arm, trying to tear it off. His very first instinct is to try and stop her but he is left completely speechless when he sees the bandage come off and finds out that there no longer was an injury beneath it. "I..." Holy shit, there was not a single scratch to her fair skin.

"You're fine," he says, gluing his eyes to the seemingly healthy skin on Chloe's arm. The only proof that there had been an injury before was the blood splatters on her cardigan.

"I... I didn't think it'd... holy shit," she is blown away herself, having expected the injury to have significantly healed but not disappeared. It was as if the bullet had never touched her in the first place.

"Are you telling me you got better from a bullet graze in an hour?" Lucifer asks, not believing what was right before his eyes. Every time he got hurt because Chloe was near he would heal really fast afterward, of course, assuming Chloe wasn't near him then.

"I'm as shocked as you are," she inspected her own arm, touching over where the graze should be, completely dumbstruck by it being fine. "I... I need to talk to Linda, I... did anything of this ever happen to her?" Lucifer looks up at her with so much confusion and emotion in his eyes that it's practically painful to watch.

"How am I supposed to know?!" Okay, now he was officially freaking out, he finally burst. He stood up and walked with direction to his balcony, not knowing how to process all the information he was receiving, completely unable to understand, to come to terms with the fact that the baby Chloe was carrying was obviously his.

"Don't yell at me!" She says almost crying, completely clueless as to what to do, as to what the future would hold for them. "You don't think I'm freaking out, too? _I'm_ the one that's carrying a child that... shit, Lucifer, what will this kid be able to do?" She places a hand on her small bump, shielding herself in the fact that the love she felt for her child would always overcome any fear she might have towards it. She felt like crap, being afraid of her own kid who was currently the size of a strawberry...

"Leave," Lucifer asks, turning his back towards her and looking out of the window, trying to down all the information and sounding pained. He was having a child, he would be fathering a half-angel child capable of who knows what and it was currently growing inside of Chloe, doing all sorts of things to her body. What if it ever hurt her? What if it was too powerful for her body to handle?

"What?" She asks dumbfoundedly, doing the exact opposite of what Lucifer had asked and approaching him.

"Leave!" He insists, hearing her footsteps as she walked towards him. For his father's sake, he was fathering a child. He hated children, he despised the little creatures, how would he be able to be what Chloe needed if the pesky little bugger would always come in between?

"Lucifer, I'm not leaving," Chloe stated, completely sure of that at least. She knew him like the back of her hand, he wouldn't get away with acting as if the problem wasn't there. "We need to talk this through, we need to know where we stand!"

"Oh, I know where I stand!" He turns himself around, scotch glass in hand as he gives his detective the most pained and emotional look he ever gave to anybody.

He didn't want that kid, he wanted her. He wanted to have her all to himself, to travel, to find out what love was like and let himself fall in love with her all over again over the smallest of things. He wanted to hold her close to his chest and never let her go, to live the life they both deserved, to keep working with her, to keep arguing about who cooked and who cleaned... he didn't want to wipe celestial poo and barf and be stuck with the burden children were, with everything they entailed.

"I..." and yet, the moment he decided he would just spit it all out and tell Chloe how he really felt about his impending fatherhood, he just couldn't. The words wouldn't come out of his mouth because he realized something that shocked him to his core: what he wanted most, what he truly desired more than anything in this world, was to make Chloe happy, and that baby growing inside of her made her happy. Looking at her right at that moment, seeing how her eyes were shining with hurt as her left hand timidly held her growing stomach, seeing how much all of it scared the shit out of her made him realize that he'd do anything for Chloe not to feel like that again. He'd do anything to keep her safe and happy and right now, even if it was as clear as water the fact that she was terrified and hurt over their conversation, he could tell that the baby she was expecting was what had made her so radiant and happy over those blissful two weeks they had together. That child, that thing growing inside her body with no shape, the literal devil's spawn and the one being that could make or break the love of his life was what made her the happiest.

"You what?" Chloe questions; the tears at the brim of her eyes threatening to spill over her cheeks.

"I can't do this. I can't do this right now," he blurts out, not ready to face the fact that it was happening, that he would eventually give up on his lifestyle, the things that had made him who he was for over seven years then, all to take care of a child. Even if he _was_ going to do that because there was no possible way neither in Hell, Heaven or Earth where he could live without Chloe, he just wasn't ready to assume that now. 

"They why am _I_ the one that has to?" Why does it have to be me the one that can pull through it all? Lucifer, I can't!" And as predicted, Chloe's tears finally make it past the barrier of her eyelids, running down her cheeks and making her voice break mid sentence. "A-and all I want right now is for you to hold me and tell me everything is going to be okay because as much as I'd like to think it will be, I can't help but feel like it won't,"

"I'm sorry," his voice comes out as a whisper, lost in the wind of his sigh. "All I ever want to do is make you happy and... I don't think I'm able to do that right now," and at that, Chloe gets rid of any restrain that kept her from walking up to him and doing what she wanted to do. She approaches him and just as the devil lowers his eyes to avoid looking at her, she places her hand on his cheek, shocking him.

"But you do. You make me so happy, Lucifer," she smiles small through her words, trying to comfort him somehow, trying to make him feel what she felt, what he made her feel. "Those two months you were in Hell were torture to me, I... I can't find the words to say how I feel about you, how you make me feel—,"

"Chloe, I..." he tries to say, he tries to refute everything coming from his detective's mouth but he is unable to.

"—And if all you really want is for me to be happy, then don't run. Don't push me away, let me count on you and with that, I'm more than just happy," she looks deeply into the darkness of his beautiful eyes, happy to be able to voice less than one percent of what was really going through her mind and heart. "Give me your hand," she asks, but instead of waiting for the devil to give it to her, she reaches out and grabs it.

She, slowly but surely and never taking her eyes off of Lucifer's, moves his hand towards her bump, placing it flat right underneath her belly button which was where her stomach swelled the most. Quickly, she places both of her hands over his, reading him like an open book and knowing he'd want to get his hand away as soon as possible, pressing slightly so he'd feel the hardness of it. She is quick to smile his way, letting herself be drawn in the moment; the very first time Lucifer came into contact with their child, with the little nugget that made her the happiest of all.

"I know you don't love it. Neither the kid or the idea of being a father, I know you like the back of my hand," she hears him gasp shakily as the shade of the smallest smile to ever exist creeps up his lips. That had to be something. "But right now, all I ask of you, is that you try,"

"I..." he tries again to voice how he feels, to let Chloe know everything that was going on inside his mind. However, he is really unsuccessful.

"I know you will never understand the kind of love I feel towards this kid and I also know you despise children with all your being," she keeps on talking, firmly pressing his hand on her tiny bump, hand that could perfectly mold to the round shape of her womb. "But Lucifer, the best thing about children is that you are the one that gets to raise them, you are the one who decides how they are, how they love and who they become" Lucifer feels kind of distant, as if he weren't paying attention to the words Chloe was speaking, as if there was something else that was catching his attention. "What is it?" She asks when she notices, searching for his eyes but finding him looking at nothing in particular.

"It's..." he mumbles and for the first time, Chloe feels Lucifer's hand press on her belly, not her own. He frowns then, coming to a realization all under Chloe's lost blue eyes.

"Lucifer, everything okay?" She tentatively removes one of her own hands from her bump, reaching out with it and softly stroking the devil's cheek.

"I can... Woah, I can hear its heartbeat," he gasps again, finally able to put a name to that sound he had fallen asleep to on so many occasions, mainly every time they spooned.

He felt weird about it. One would expect that he would hear the heartbeat of his son or daughter and would immediately feel a connection with them, that he would immediately feel something unexplainable towards them, and truth to be told, he was kind of expecting to feel that way. He had heard that sound so many times, every time his hands would place themselves on Chloe's midriff there it would be, the fast thuds at the back of his head. Now that he could understand why they were there in the first place it... it made him feel torn. On one side, the rhythmic and fast beats felt kind of reassuring but in the other, everything they did was contribute to his fear, to his panic. He didn't want to tell Chloe that, he knew it would break her heart.

"You can what?" Chloe smiled, looking down to where their hands were placed on her stomach. It felt so new but so good having his hand there, it felt like it was meant to be that way. "How is it?" She asks, hopeful that maybe, only maybe Lucifer would get on board with everything if he got to feel his own connection with their child.

"Fast, really fast," he says, still amazed by the fact that he could actually hear it but no so much by the fact that it meant it was real. Everything they were living, that moment in time was so real it was terrifying. He quickly pulled his hand away from the source of the sound, not wanting to give Chloe false hope but also not wanting to shatter her much. He was so lost, it had been long since the last time he had felt so helpless.

"The doctor said so," she says, letting Lucifer's hand go but keeping her own in place, wishing she was able to hear her baby like Lucifer was.

Lucifer almost asked her about it, he almost voiced his concern over her doctor's appointment but ultimately, he remained silent. He felt torn because on one side he wanted to know how it had been, what the doctor had said and on the other he just wanted to run away from it all, to pretend it didn't exist. He looked at Chloe in the eyes and hoped she would be able to see right through him, to understand how he felt because truth to be told, he was completely unable to put it into words. The only thing he was sure about was that he didn't love the idea of parenthood, it had never been in his plans and if the woman had been anyone else he wouldn't have thought twice about suggesting other alternatives. But this was Chloe, the woman he so deeply cared about, the woman he loved with every fiber of his being, his miracle. He couldn't do that to her, he couldn't even find it in his heart to even consider it as a possibility, he had no right to hurt her like that. He gave her the tiniest smile, deciding he wouldn't think about the subject anymore, or at least not for a while. He needed to let the information sink in, let time wash over them just a bit and maybe then he would be able to oversee it again, he couldn't do that now.

"Can we just..." he says and that's enough for Chloe to understand what he needs, what he means. She reciprocates the small smile as she nods quickly, using the hand that was previously on her bump to grab Lucifer's and squeeze it.

"Yeah, totally," she agrees, letting Lucifer get away with not thinking about it anymore. Arguing and having such a tough conversation had completely drained her, so much that even she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

"Come on here, muffin," and it's when Lucifer opens his arms and makes himself available for the hug Chloe needed that she throws herself at him, crashing strongly into his chest and squeezing him tight, placing her head right above his heart.

"We're gonna be okay, right?" She asks with her voice shy, allowing herself to feel small when Lucifer's arms wrap themselves around her, making her feel safe inside his cocoon.

"Yeah, we'll be all right," Lucifer breathes out, placing his cheek over his detective's head and just remaining quiet there, letting himself enjoy the feeling of having her back in his arms. He had been alive since the beginning of time and he had never felt something as rewarding as having the woman he loved clinging to him like a koala bear, making him feel complete.

They honestly don't know how long they stayed hugging for but it was just the right amount of time. It felt nice to have the heat of the other telling them that everything would be fine, that they still had each other. In that time, Chloe was able to come to terms with the fact that Lucifer would take his sweet time to be on board with the situation, with the idea of being a father. It was how he was, and even if it would take time and effort she was sure they would get there. He was just starting to learn how to be committed to someone, how to be in a relationship with someone you have feelings so strong you don't know what to do with them, it was only logical that a shock like a pregnancy would make him react the way he did.

They went to sleep not too long after that, finally feeling letting the exhaustion get to them. They laid down in bed and tried to get their minds as blank as possible, tried to think of anything else that didn't have anything to do with the elephant in the room, tried to talk about trivial stuff. Truth to be told, it was what both of them needed: to not think about it and to sleep peacefully. Ultimately they found that they really weren't in the mood to talk, which made them silently agree to sleep it away, hoping they would wake up the next day and everything would be better.

If only things worked that way... Lucifer's next session with Linda couldn't come soon enough.


	11. Chapter XI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi sweethearts! Hope you're all doing okay during these tough times. I can barely stand myself with all the isolation and quarantine stuff but hey, at least I'm writing which is kind of productive. 
> 
> Hope you like this chapter, I have a feeling you'll sigh 'finally' at the end of it. 
> 
> I love you guys so much, thank you for 6k+ hits and 300+ kudos, you really mean the world to me. Keep up the commenting and kudoing to make this one girl really happy!!
> 
> Stay safe, inside and wash your hands!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Well, the fact that things didn't go as Chloe wanted had to be the understatement of the millennia.

It had been a little bit over a week since that awful night where Lucifer found out, and ever since then, they had not spoken a word about the subject. Every time Chloe tried to Lucifer would just look so uncomfortable and out of his element, and he would do literally anything to stop talking about it. The last time anything referred to Chloe's pregnancy made it into the briefest conversation was when Chloe casually told him she had another doctor's appointment and that he was welcome to come if he wanted to. Needless to say, he didn't answer. It made things awkward because they were still in a relationship and loved the other dearly but having such a huge thing come in between them was really testing them. 

Given the events that happened on their last stakeout, Chloe was forced to tell their Lieutenant that she was, indeed, pregnant. She didn't have to do much explaining luckily because her boss was a woman that also valued privacy, so with telling her how far along she was and briefly going over her situation everything was sorted. She, of course, still had to wear the bandage on her arm so people would believe she was actually hurt and not find it suspicious. She just couldn't go around her life telling people she was pregnant with a celestial being who could heal her almost instantly and had taken down another celestial being while it was the size of a raspberry.

People at work could tell there was some kind of tension between Chloe and Lucifer but no one had dared to ask. Of course, the only ones that knew a little bit more about the whole situation were Dan and Ella, and the piercing daggers Chloe would send their way every time she saw them with the intention of making a question or comment was enough to keep them quiet. She just had so much on her plate with Lucifer and her pregnancy and all the changes happening to her body —namely, healing completely from a bullet graze in an hour— that she just couldn't deal with the worries and questions of everyone else. She was pregnant, for goodness sake, she was allowed to act selfishly. She was just trying to pretend everything was fine when in reality all she wanted was for Lucifer to finally accept the idea that their child would be coming next summer and just be there as her emotional support. 

Ever since the horrific finding out, they had been sleeping apart more often than they slept together. They both were trying to convince themselves that everything was fine and that they still had their own things to deal with outside of their relationship but in reality what was happening was that they had grown apart to some extent, and neither one of them wanted to acknowledge that. Thankfully for everyone, Lucifer was having his therapy session that Thursday which would hopefully bring some clarity to the whole situation because, in all honesty, Chloe just missed him, and he also missed her but it just felt weird to completely act as if nothing were happening.

Regarding Lucifer, well, it wasn't like acting as if everything was okay had been proven useful. He acted —or rather tried to— as if nothing had changed but not so deep down he knew things had taken a one-eighty, be them with Chloe or with anything else. He just couldn't come to terms with the fact that he was going to be a father and that there wasn't any possible way of things not ending up with him fathering a half-human spawn. He would find himself staring at Chloe's stomach far more often than he'd like to admit, he would always have it present, but he would never, under any circumstance, let his hands near the place that was brewing his child. Ever since he was able to put a name to the sound he had fallen asleep to on so many occasions he had refused to hear it again. It was just so... It made him realize that the situation he was in was no joke, and he really didn't want to be told that. 

With all of that in mind —like every single second of his awake time, and sometimes in his dreams, too— he drove himself to Linda's so she could work her magic on him. He just couldn't keep on living with the chaos inside his head and the constant knowledge that the growth of Chloe's stomach was constant. He wasn't able to deal with it as he should and therefore, he felt like he was failing Chloe, which was a whole other problem on itself.

"Chloe is pregnant," he barges into Linda's office the second his clock hits three o'clock. Luckily, Linda was alone and wasn't working with anyone else but either way, if that were the case, Lucifer would just throw them out. It wouldn't be a first.

"Hello, Lucifer," Linda greets him, standing up from the chair at her desk and moving to the one where she always sat during the sessions, fearing the session they would have. She knew that sooner or later Lucifer would find out about it and she kind of felt bad for not telling him that she knew. Lucifer squints his dark eyes at her, reading her like an open book.

"You knew," he accuses, completely coming inside the room and looking at Linda with hurt in his eyes. Of course, she would know something life-changing about his future and not tell him, she was his therapist. Under no circumstance was it her place to tell him something like that.

"Sit down, let's talk about this," she watches him intently as he nervously walks over to the couch and sits down, still looking at her as if she had just hit a puppy, and usually he wasn't one to care much about puppies. 

"You knew and you didn't tell me. Why?" he inquires, slowly shifting his semblance towards an angrier look rather than a hurt one. He was awfully composed; his voice almost completely monotone. 

"Lucifer, it wasn't my place. It was Chloe's. You can't use this against me," Linda says calmly, thanking all her years of working as a therapist and also her years of knowing him as a whole.

"You should've told me!" his hands are sweaty, which is something new for him, and he just feels so overwhelmed. His feelings take him back to the night he found out, making him shiver. He felt so lost, so confused... As if he knew what he wanted but also didn't. 

"No, I didn't. Chloe had to be the one to tell you when she was ready, and I'm glad things turned out that way. How are you feeling?" Linda swiftly avoids his reproach, trying to focus more on the devil himself rather than the fault he thought she was at. 

"I... How long... How long have you know for?" his semblance falters slightly at the softness of Linda's words. He could never get mad at her. She smiles sympathetically at him, understanding the place of uncertainty and fear he was in; he didn't have to say it, it was painfully obvious. 

"Chloe found out with me," she says softly, not erasing the sympathetic expression off her face.

"First, Detective Douche finds out before I do and now you, too?" he was hurt, he was under so many strong and not necessarily positive emotions about it all. Realizing that made him all the more sure that the right thing was acting as if everything was okay. 

"If it's of any consolation, Chloe was alone. She didn't know if you were coming back, it was expectable that she'd think of us as her emotional support,"

"It wasn't my fault that I had to leave," Lucifer argues half-heartedly, evidently feeling misjudged by the comment. Chloe had been alone because he had to leave. He wouldn't have left her if it wasn't completely necessary, he did it to protect her, to keep her out of harm's way. "I did it to protect her, it was in humanity's best interest,"

"And we know that and appreciate it a lot. I'm just telling you so you know where Chloe is coming from. Tell me everything, how you found out, how you're feeling about it," she crosses one leg over the other and with a reassuring smile gives Lucifer the space to open up about his struggle.

And he does because, when does he not? He tells her everything, every single thing from the moment Chloe got hurt with the bullet to the Douche blurting it out, to their gruesome conversation barely an hour later. He tells her how he is able to hear the child's heartbeat whenever he puts his hand on Chloe's stomach, how barely an hour after getting hurt Chloe was completely fine; he tells her all the events that happened surrounding the pregnancy but he never opens up about how he felt about it all, which is a big red flag to Linda. She doesn't want to be rude and tell him that she already knew all of that because Chloe had already told her, so she listens as she always does, borrowing him her mind so he could sort out his own. 

"Lucifer, the context you found out about the baby was the worst, and out of everything you've just said the thing that speaks the most to me is that you left out how you felt about it," Linda speaks once she notices Lucifer is done, trying to get him to connect with his own emotions. "What matters here is that you connect with how you feel so you can process it correctly," the devil remains silent for a while; gaze locked on is own intertwined hands, looking like he was fighting against everything that dared cross his mind. 

"The thing is: how I feel about it doesn't... If she ever found out how I truly felt she'd be so hurt," he says, physically trying to restrain the words from leaving his mouth. 

"How it is that you feel?" Linda insists, pressing on the issue, sticking her finger inside the wound, and digging deeper. That was therapy's purpose, to dig out everything that hurt so it could get better. 

"I..." he stutters, not wanting to even admit it for himself. The truth was that how he felt about it all made him feel so bad about himself that saying it would just make it even worse. He didn't want Chloe to suffer, he'd do anything to make her happy which meant that if he had to live buried under the weight of his own feelings, well... it would be worth it because his detective would have a smile on her lips rather than tears in her eyes. 

"Lucifer, I can see what you're doing. You're trying to suppress what you feel because it hurts, and that's exactly what you shouldn't do. No one can live with the weight of their world on their shoulders," Linda is sweet and sympathetic as she speaks, trying to get him into a zone where he would feel safe enough within himself to just admit it all. "So I ask you again, how do you feel about becoming a father?"

"I... I'm not sure I want it," and well, that kind of had been progress. All his life he had solemnly sworn he would never have children but then again, he never thought it was possible. Now, coming from that stand and changing it to an 'I'm not sure I want it' was a leap of progress even _he_ could see. "And... I don't want Chloe to know that because I know it would hurt her,"

"And what makes you say you're not sure?" She just had to guide him into his own path but she could already think of so many reasons. "I'm pretty sure you from the past would be totally, one hundred percent against the idea of having children,"

"Well, for starters, I didn't even know I could," he adds, taking his time to think about his reasons, about the 'if' that could make him change his mind. "I guess it's the detective herself," he acknowledges, thinking about Chloe's blue eyes during their conversation, how glossy and sad they had looked. 

"Lucifer, you have been alive since the beginning of time and yet, this is the very first time you experience love. It comes with loving the need, the instinct, of giving in to what your significant other wants or what you think they want. It's love's 101," Linda explains, feeling as if she were teaching a child something that for adults was only the norm. He had lived for so long and experienced even the unimaginable, yet when it came to love he was still so uncertain, so new. Everything single thing that happened, even if it was according to the evolution of a relationship, would shock him and therefore, he'd try to resist it. It was his way of living, resisting change until it became the norm, fearing the unknown. "Now, why have you always said you would never have children? Given the possibility, of course,"

And Lucifer really has to take his sweet time to deliver that answer. First and foremost, he and the children didn't mix well. When he was first introduced to them, his very first conclusion was that they didn't fit in with his lifestyle and therefore they were kind of a burden. He never understood the human need to procreate, why they would burden themselves with two, three, or even more children, he never understood the joy people sought with that. He feels pretty content with that answer, yet when he goes to voice it he just can't. He couldn't help but feel like it was incomplete, like something was missing from it, like the fact that children were burdening taxes wasn't the only reason he was so against them.

And of course, as everything that was damned in his life, it had something to do with his own father. People may say whatever they want of God, but they never lived what Lucifer lived, they never went through what he went through. He lacked love all throughout what would be considered his childhood, his father always cared more about his garage project —as he liked to call humanity— than all of his children, more than his own wife, even. The only difference had been that Lucifer had been the rebel, he had been the one to voice his needs, to suggest a change, and just like that the favorite son became the banished one, the one his parents threw out of their house. He couldn't even fathom how his siblings must have felt back when he was in the Silver City. If he had been the favorite son and yet lacked so much, what had been left for the rest of his siblings?

Maybe, only maybe, he had never opened up to children because his own trauma made him think he would hurt them, do them wrong as his father had done to him. 

Yeah, it totally was what he first thought about.

"I guess when I was first introduced to them I just felt like they didn't fit in with the lifestyle I wanted to have. They are far too demanding, it's just... I can't be a nightclub owner and do all the things I like to do with a pesky little bugger running around," he goes with the easy way out, trying to forget all the thinking he had done about his father. He refused to believe that his father had more influence in his life than he allowed him to have. 

"And yet, you stopped doing all those things you loved the minute you realized that Chloe was _it_ ," Linda was so insightful and was always so right about things that it sometimes exasperated him. "That is if we're talking about all the sleeping around and partying every day,"

"I have stopped sleeping around, yes. Partying... well, lately I've been more involved in Lux's more packed nights," he confesses, slightly ashamed of himself. As of lately, since he was sleeping more often at his own place, the temptation to go to the parties had won him over. He wasn't sleeping around with anyone, and although the offers seemed to be endless, he remained completely faithful to Chloe. 

"And I can only assume that is because Chloe and you are going through a rough patch?" he remains silent at that, not wanting to admit the fact that, indeed, his relationship with Chloe had changed ever since he found out about his impending fatherhood. On one side he wanted things to go back to how they were before and act as if all this pregnancy stuff wasn't happening and on the other, he felt bad if he acted that way because it'd mean he'd be failing Chloe in a time of need. Doing what he was doing right then, though, was accomplishing the wrong part of both sides, he was failing Chloe and acting as if nothing had happened wasn't working for him at all. "Lucifer, children are the most resilient creatures to ever exist. They are as you make them, I can see that with Charlie and he isn't even three months old yet,"

"That's exactly the issue!" and well, talk about accidental slip-ups. Freud would have so much material from working with him. What is worse, Linda looks at him with a smile that tries to be sympathetic but has a slight undertone of smugness to it, as if she were mentally telling him 'I told you so'.

"How so?" She asks, seeming so neutral and composed, as if she didn't want to yell at him and say 'I told you so, you have daddy issues'.

"I..." Lucifer sighs, feeling overwhelmed by the number of things he was being forced to admit in one sitting. "Well, let's say I didn't have the most stable family growing up, but you know that already" he settles for that, framing all he wanted to say and referred to but not having to dig in too deep into the wound the lack of parental love had left on him. He was, in fact, so hurt about it that most of the time he refused to even acknowledge it existed.

"It's normal to want to live your life as opposed to what your parents did. That's textbook," Linda speaks, knowing she won't get much out of Lucifer. "There's a study done on people who had a traumatic or non-conventional childhood versus people with standard ones and it showed that those whose parents gave them a hard time growing up raised their children completely opposite of how they had been raised," Linda was really trying to get him on board with the idea but Lucifer was just so afraid. It went further than just not liking children, it was the fear of failure that was haunting him.

"And what if I fail them anyway?" He asks, looking up with heavy torment painting his beautiful dark eyes. "What if I do everything opposite to what my father did and it's still not enough?"

"You won't know until you're there. Besides, what your family had was a lack of love and affection," and Linda was, in fact, speaking the truth there. "I don't think that would be your case,"

"How do you know I'll love them? Huh? How do you know I'll give them the love they need?" He protests, already feeling so overwhelmed and worn by the conversation.

"As a mother, I tell you, the moment your child comes into Earth and you take the first look at them, you instantly fall in love," Linda smiled widely then, thinking of her own son and how much she loved him.

"That's easy for you, women. You literally carry the spawn inside of you for nine months, you already have a connection with it. How am I supposed to connect with a being that can't even tell you how they feel?" And at that Linda's smile grew wider because, even if Lucifer was heavily concerned and practically freaking out before her eyes, he was thinking of his child. He was trying to understand how it would work, how to put their needs first, he was considering the child as a whole. That had to be genuine progress.

"That right there, Lucifer, is the question every parent asks themselves when they find out they're going to have a child," Linda smiles, feeling confident as to where their conversation was going. "Charlie is two months old and I still have meltdowns whenever he won't stop crying,"

"How is that supposed to make me feel better?" He asks ironically, imagining Linda and his brother in such a situation and fearing for his future self.

"It isn't," Linda says simply, trying to reassure him with her calm eyes. "It's supposed to tell you the truth, to teach you that kids are hard, they really are, but they can also be so rewarding. You just have to give in to that,"

"I don't... I guess my posture over children has become more flexible over the years, I mean, if it hadn't I wouldn't even try to get close to Chloe's spawn," Lucifer comments, reflecting on his own behavior and choices for a change. Truth to be told, he had grown closer to the little urchin, not to the point where neither Chloe or himself would trust him with the child alone but enough so that they can share a moment and actually enjoy it. He just cared about Chloe so much that he'd do anything to please her. "Which I have, and it's just... There's never a good time to find out you're having a child but this time is just the worst. I've just come back to Earth, I'm still thinking about dad and everything he told me and... having Ansel down ruling Hell..."

And just like that, at the mere mention of his brother Ansel, the whole conversation he had with his father came back to his mind and ultimately, the reason why Ansel was now looking over Hell instead of him. He had tried to kill an unborn child and for that, he had been punished with the toughest of punishments, he had been crowned as the new king of Hell to rule for all eternity.

He tried to kill an unborn child. _Holy shit_.

As it downs on him the fact that his father may have very well referred to the child Chloe was pregnant with when he told him about Ansel, Lucifer's hands get fidgety. It was a fact that he and Ansel had never been close due to the age gap but still, he wouldn't do that to him, right? He wanted to believe he wouldn't try and kill his own blood.

"Bullocks," he curses, suddenly too sure about the fact that his brother had to have tried to kill _his_ son or daughter, otherwise why would have God been so secretive when he asked him about it? He had to get to Chloe and ask her about it... like right now.

"Everything all right?" Linda asks, quickly bringing him back to the session.

"Absolutely not. I... back when I had my conversation with dad I asked him who the human Ansel tried to kill was. He said I'd find out in due time or some bullshit like that and I... I didn't push it because I didn't really care," Linda's eyes grow slightly larger and rounder, understanding and following Lucifer's train of thought. Once again, she knew something important to his life that she could not tell; Amenadiel had told her about the attack the moment he had found out. "Now I'm... that bastard," and at that Linda was lost, not understanding if he meant his father or brother.

"Lucifer, all you have right now is pure conjecture, you don't know if your dad was talking about your baby," even if that was what any normal therapist would say, Linda still felt like she was failing him a bit for not supporting his conjecture. After all, the devil was, indeed, very right.

"Who else could he have been talking about? He would have told me if it didn't have anything to do with me," Lucifer quickly jumped from a stance of uncertainty regarding his fatherhood to a full-on worry mode. He was so fidgety and unsteady, overall so concerned and Linda couldn't tell if it was about Chloe or the baby's wellbeing. Truth to be told, she didn't think Lucifer could tell either. "I need to go talk to Chloe," he stands up, facing the barely surprised expression on Linda's face. His session was far from over but he'd just probably barge in inside her office on the following days to follow up on what they and just talked about. Right then, though, he needed to leave and in all honesty, Linda wasn't worried at all.

"Drive safely!" She gets around yelling that right before Lucifer leaves her office in a rush, so tense and desperate to get to his detective.

If he cared a little bit less about keeping divinity from humanity he would just unfurl his wings and get to the precinct by means of flying. It would certainly be quicker and more efficient but given the fact that it was three-thirty in the afternoon... well, it would catch some eyes seeing a six-foot-three man dressed in a suit just flying across the city.

He gets inside his Corvette and drives himself to the precinct, arriving mad that the traffic was so bad it had taken him double the time it normally would. He would never get used to traffic in Los Angeles, and that is saying much since he hasn't been anywhere other than LA or maybe Vegas during the last seven years.

He slams the door of his car shut and briefly regrets it before walking in inside the building, making a beeline to Chloe's desk where he knew she would be. They didn't have a case as of that afternoon and while he was dismissed to do whatever he pleased, he knew Chloe would have to be working and doing paperwork on the cases they had recently closed.

"I need to talk to you," he is quick and direct, not wasting time as he arrives at his beloved's desk.

"Oh, hi Lucifer. How are you?" She lifts up her gaze from the files on her table and teases him slightly, grinning at the very beginning but letting it fall off her face once she sees how serious Lucifer's semblance was. "Everything okay?" She asks tentatively, noticing how distressed he was.

"I need to know something," he states, not speaking until he got all of Chloe's attention. "Okay, so, have you, by any chance, stumbled upon a six-foot-two, blonde, blue-eyed British man called Ansel while I wasn't on Earth?" He sees her face fall as she takes a trip down memory lane to about three weeks prior, the very same day Lucifer came back from Hell. In all honesty, she had suppressed the thought and memory of everything that had happened during her first ultrasound, and although she understood it was important that Lucifer knew about it, the truth was that she just forgot to tell him. It had been kind of traumatic having someone threatening your life and finding out to some extent about the powers of the child growing inside her womb so she just avoided thinking about it until she ultimately forgot. She didn't purposefully keep it from him at all.

"Lucifer, can we just... I don't know, talk about this later?" She knew how the conversation would be and everything it would entail. They would talk about angels and magic and all the shit celestial beings could do and what her baby had done, she couldn't risk having someone overhear them at work. Not that she cared much about them looking a little bit crazy it was just that for one, it was a private matter and two, she didn't want to have Lucifer throwing a fit in front of all her coworkers. It totally wasn't necessary.

"You have, haven't you?" He assumes, looking mad but not at her. That felt oddly relieving. "I'm going to kill that bastard,"

"No, no you won't," she caught him by the wrist just as he turned around to leave, and even if his very first impulse was to just get rid of the touch and fly down to Hell, he didn't. "Just... meet me at my place at seven, I'll tell you everything but... let's just not do a scene here," she whispers that last bit, tightening her grip on his wrist so he wouldn't just fly away.

"I... did he try to hurt you? I swear, Chloe, if he laid a hand on you I'm going to—" luckily he doesn't get to say what he would do to his brother because Chloe stops him first.

"—You're not going to do anything. You're going to stay right here, with me, and help me sort out all of these papers and then we'll go to my house and we'll talk about it, okay?" Lucifer was so fidgety and uncomfortable. He wanted to run so much that it was obvious, Chloe was truly fearing he would just unfurl his wings and fly away right in the middle of the precinct.

"Did he hurt you?" He asks; semblance gone completely serious and looking into his detective's eyes with the utmost worry but also looking deadly enough. He was ready to kill whoever dared to lay a finger on the love of his life.

"He didn't, I'm fine," Chloe is quick to say, aware of all the explaining she would have to do later on. "I'm completely fine, so is the baby," she explains, witnessing how Lucifer slightly calmed down at her words, how his body slowly started to look less tense.

"You're sure?" He just needs to double-check, he needs to be reassured that Chloe truly is fine.

"One hundred percent," she lightly tugs at his sleeve and manages to get him to sit down on an office chair right beside her own, glad that he was pliant and just followed where she drove him. "I really am fine, there's nothing to worry about, and as of the baby, you could check if you wanted to," she says softly and with low volume, bringing up his ability to hear the child's heartbeat whenever he put his hand on her stomach.

"I believe you," and of course, he chooses not to. Besides, he really did believe her and whatever it was that Ansel had done had been done at least three weeks ago. Chloe looked and seemed perfect and if she was, so was the baby. There was no need to double-check, or at least, that was what he was trying to convince himself of.

However, with all the certainty he got from talking to Chloe and knowing for a fact that she was alright, also came a lot of doubt and wondering about what had really happened with Ansel. Whatever it was that he had tried to do to Chloe would always be horrible in Lucifer's eyes and he just couldn't wait to find out and choose what punishment he deserved. Clearly, ruling Hell for all eternity wasn't enough for trying to go and harm the love of his life.


	12. Chapter XII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello you sweet, beautiful people! Here is me, giving you chapter 12 to make your quarantine/self-isolation go by a little bit easier (hopefully).
> 
> So... I did a layout of the whole fic and briefly summarized everything that happens in the following chapters up until the epilogue... and well, let me tell you there's no way I can possible squeeze all of that in under 100k words, so this still has a while to go. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it under 130k, I really didn't want this book to become a word monster but hey, I really want to be thorough with my writing. 
> 
> Oh, by the way, with epilogue and all and supposing no new crazy ideas come to my mind before I finish this, this fic will have 25 parts, so one could say we're halfway through. 
> 
> I have a feeling you'll love the ending on this one. I really wasn't planning that but I loved how it turned out. I also went a bit overboard and did 7k+ words, so... yeah, there's why this will never be under 100k words total. 
> 
> Oh, almost forgot, I already know the gender AND name of baby Deckerstar, and you are finding out next chapter!! The gender, at least, not the name. So, go down to the comment section and tell me what your guesses are, I'd love to hear you all.
> 
> Remember to self isolate and wash your hands!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

The rest of that day had been, well... intense. That was the word that described it most accurately.

Lucifer had understood Chloe's point of view, that it was unnecessary and uncalled for if they made a scene over what his brother had done, it would be a talk with too much _Luciferness_ for them to have at work. Besides, only five people at the precinct knew about Chloe's pregnancy and two of them were Lucifer and Chloe herself, without saying, of course, that no one else knew about the divine side of things. It really wasn't the place to discuss rays of heavenly white light coming off of her stomach and wrapping around an angel's heart and it fading away and probably appearing in Hell.

With all of that in mind, the remaining two and a half hours they stayed at the precinct had been filled with a whole lot of uncomfortable silence and a fidgety Lucifer sitting by her side. Now that he knew she was fully okay, all that remained was the wanting, the need to know what his brother had done. He couldn't help it but still feel the desperation to fly down to Hell and take matters into his own hands. The only reason he was still on Earth was because Chloe had asked him to, but if it were up to him he would be wiping Ansel's soul from existence. No one could even wonder about harming Chloe and getting away with it, that was how much he cared about her.

The thought of the baby and the fact that Ansel had been after it and not Chloe made it inside his mind a lot more times than he would like to admit. Apart from the fact that the child was inside Chloe and while trying to hurt it he might have also hurt her as well, he also started to feel worried about it. It frightened him at first, the fact that he was scared for his child's life and safety, but after doing a bit of thinking and actually going over everything Linda had said, he stopped freaking out.

Linda had been right on so many occasions, she had shined a light on all the issues Lucifer had had over those last two years, she had helped him understand himself, his actions, his feelings, even. He had learned to not take for granted everything she said and to actually listen, and even if doing what she advised would always have some sort of unlikable implication, he now could understand that it was for the better good in the long run. He couldn't help it but let all the words that had been spoken during their session slip right back into his mind on those two and a half hours of just sitting by Chloe's side.

He loved Chloe, there was no possible way on either Heaven, Hell, or Earth anyone would even dare to refute that. She was the purpose for his heartbeat, she was the one to give his life meaning, she was the only human since the beginning of time to ever make the devil vulnerable, to ever make him bleed. There was no doubt on that side of things. His issue —and he was actually able to identify it— was, of course, with all that his impending fatherhood entailed.

He could tell Chloe was happy about it. She had so many doubts and questions and fears about it all but ultimately, he had never seen her look happier. She was looking forward to becoming a mother once again, and she was actually glad it was with Lucifer because she loved him just as much as he loved her. He had vowed to himself that he'd do everything in his power and even go beyond that to make Chloe happy, which meant he was aware that if he ditched her with the baby he would be failing her and therefore, hurting her.

Truth to be told, it went further than just sparing Chloe the heartbreak of realizing he was a disaster. He just... talking about it with Linda he realized that if he stayed and did everything in his power to be a good father, even if he failed horribly at it, it would still be better than what he had to go through during what would be considered his childhood. His father had always been there, but as much as he was the head of the table, he was always unavailable, it made him feel like no one could ever reach him. Growing up with the knowledge he was there but knowing he would never have his attention had contributed heavily to who he was now and the fears he had towards his own fatherhood as well. Anything he managed to do regarding his child would be a thousand times better than what his father had done to him and his siblings.

If he thought about how it all made him feel, and supposing he was being honest with himself, the truth of it all came to be that he was just afraid. He was afraid of loving another being because he knew how vulnerable loving Chloe made him, he was afraid that he wouldn't be enough and therefore, he would be condemning the poor, innocent child to live the childhood he had or one even worse. He was terrified, insecure, and by no means did he know how to approach it, but even with all of that he knew that Chloe would be happy if he tried.

Children couldn't be so bad, right? The spawn —as he liked to call Trixie— wasn't awful, in fact, he was kind of growing closer to her. Fathering a child couldn't be that terrible, could it?

With all of that in mind, he decided he would try. It was already set that spawn _número dos_ would be coming sometime next year —he realized he was already failing at all the parenting stuff when he realized he didn't even know what his child's due date was. It made him freak out a little but after a lot of self-convincing and self reassuring he composed himself—, it couldn't be so bad to give himself a chance and actually make Chloe happy in the process. And, getting in touch with himself and his own emotions, he realized that the decision he had just taken had made _him_ happy as well, that had to mean something. He had kind of just resolved an issue that had been tormenting him for over a week then, realizing all he had to do was just trust and give in.

When Chloe finally finished all her paperwork she had to actually shake Lucifer out of his trance. He was so deep in thought and quietly wondering that he hadn't realized time had just washed over them like a river. It was then though, when he was brought back to reality, that the worry that had subsided about everything Ansel had done rose back.

"Hey," Chloe says as she physically shook him, grabbing him by the shoulders. "You zoned out on me,"

"Oh, sorry," he apologizes shortly before letting his mind sink into the worry and eagerness to know what had happened.

"I was telling you we're free to go. My place? Trixie is at a neighbor's birthday party so we'll be alone," Chloe explains, picking up her purse and sliding it over her shoulder. Lucifer's eyes linger on her covered stomach, barely taking a glimpse of the round little pouch covered by a white tee shirt and a blazer. She really didn't look pregnant at all but he just couldn't help but imagine things where he wasn't sure they were.

"Sure," he mumbles simply, standing up and leading Chloe out of the enclosure of her desk by putting a hand on the small of her back.

Needless to say, the drive back to Chloe's place had been filled with questions. If she had known any better she would have suggested they talked in one of the interrogation rooms because it truly felt like a one on one interrogation. She really hoped her witnesses and suspects didn't feel like she was feeling during the whole ride back to her house, she was seriously rethinking her strategies.

Of course, she stayed completely silent until they got to her house. As she had tried to tell Lucifer before, she wasn't comfortable talking about all of that while driving, she just felt like she wouldn't be able to concentrate on both things at the same time and if she didn't focus on her driving it could end up badly for everyone. No one said, though, that staying quiet and composed while Lucifer was anxiously asking questions all over the place was easy.

The minute they made it inside the house, she was bombarded with a thousand times the amount of questions she had been faced with during the car ride. Most of them, though, consisted of really making sure she was fine rather than actually getting information on what had happened, which was totally normal Lucifer behavior. She was glad about that, at least.

"Chloe, please. I need to know if I have to pop down to Hell and rip that asshole's eyes out with my own hands," he begged, not even letting her sit down and just holding her by the hand in the middle of her living room. Guess he just was really eager.

"You have to promise me that under no circumstance you will go back to Hell," Chloe puts as a condition, squeezing the hand Lucifer was holding onto just as tightly.

"I can't promise you that," he mutters, leading her towards the grey loveseat in her living room and sitting down.

"Then I can't tell you," she sits down after him, unsure if she would be able to deal with his rage after she told him. He made a face like he was about to protest but Chloe didn't let him. "I just... I don't want to be away from you any more than I have to," he still doesn't look convinced at that. "And if it's of any consolation, I think the punishment he's facing is more than enough. The baby and I are fine, you don't have to worry about it,"

"What can you know about that?" Lucifer questions, still holding on to her hand. It sounds less harsh than it looks like. "He tried to hurt you, I can't live with knowing I let him get away with that," 

"I know what ruling Hell did to you, I know how much it hurt you and how much you despised it. If it's just as bad now as it was when you were there, then it's all he deserves," Chloe tries to be sympathetic, understanding that Lucifer felt like he had failed her by not being there when Ansel tried to hurt her. "Besides, I don't think he ever tried to hurt me. I actually think he was only interested in the baby,"

"And how does that make him a saint?" Lucifer asks rhetorically, scoffing at the comment.

"It doesn't. I think it actually makes him more of a monster," she sighs deeply, finally getting ready to spill the beans on what had gone down the day Lucifer came back to earth. "It happened the day you came back. I had an appointment with the doctor to check on the baby and all of that and when I was waiting for him to get into the office, he came in. He told me he was an intern and that he and to do an abdominal palpation, which I thought was kind of weird but still, I let him to it," Lucifer was listening to her very intently, paying attention to everything that came out of her mouth. She had never seen him so focused before. "He had a ring just like yours but with a yellow gem, and the moment his hands touched my belly it started shining," he stayed silent, letting her carry on. Up until then, nothing she had said had caused him to flare up, which was either really good or really bad. "I couldn't move but I also couldn't feel anything, it didn't hurt. It was as if he had been trying to get something specific from the baby, not me,"

"What could have he wanted from a half-human child?" Lucifer wonders, slightly too calm about the subject. It was certainly eerie and needless to say, it was worrying Chloe.

"I was hoping you or Amenadiel would be able to answer that," she takes a deep breath in, getting in touch with the fact that the craziest part of the story was right ahead. "Whatever, he... when he tried to do whatever he came here to do, literally, white light started coming off of my stomach. I... it wrapped around his hand a-and it was as if he wanted to get rid of it but couldn't," at that, Lucifer's eyes grew rounder and heavier, probably having understood something that Chloe hadn't. "It made its way through his left arm up to his heart and then he disappeared,"

Lucifer was deadly silent but there was something in his eyes that told her he knew more than he was letting on. She just let him be quiet, process everything he had just heard. 

"I know, it's totally nuts but I swear that's what happened," Chloe adds a couple of seconds later, trying to get Lucifer's attention back to her.

"That son of a bitch," he mumbled as he quickly stood up. He was unable to keep it in, he felt the need to just do it. And so he did, he unfurled his wings in the middle of Chloe's living room, thing that was rather chaotic. Taking into consideration the fact that each one of them measured more than six feet of length, well... it was an understatement that a lot of things had been knocked over by them. Chloe, though, was quick to stand up after him and grab him by both hands, already sensing what his intentions were.

"Lucifer, calm down," Chloe asked him, standing as close as she could while still able to look at him in the eyes. "No going back to Hell, remember?"

"I can't not go down to Hell and just..." he was so mad at him he couldn't even phrase what he wanted to do to him. There were just so many things, so many possibilities. "He... he tried to hurt you, I... how were you able to..."

"It's okay, I'm okay," she tentatively lifted up her hands through his arms and wrapped him up in a hug, feeling him fighting against his own instincts until he eventually relaxed at her touch. He softly hugged her back, letting her bury her face on the crook of his neck and slowly putting his wings away, lowering down the rate of his breathing. "I'm in one piece, I'm okay," she whispered near his ear, the sound muffled by the closeness between her mouth and the crook of his neck. He pulled away from the hug and brought his hands up to cup her face, shifting his gaze in between her eyes and trying to tell if she was telling the truth.

"I need to... he tried to go against you, I can't let him get away with that," he says that softly, looking into both of her eyes and trying to decide which one was the prettiest.

"No, you don't. I need you here, I..." in that particular moment, Chloe remembered what Lucifer had told her the night he came back, about the conditions he had spoken about with his father. "If you go down there you are giving him an out. A-and if he gets out and you get stuck down there I... I can't lose you again," she pleads, lifting up her own hands to wrap around his wrists and keep him closer. 

"But—" he tries, but it's short-lived.

"—But nothing. I need you here with me, I can't risk losing you again," he brings her into a tight hug once again, relieved that the tension they had had during that last week had significantly deemed. He was still angry at Ansel, Hell, if Chloe weren't holding him back he'd be kicking the crap out of him right that second, but he also understood Chloe's fear. As long as Ansel remained in Hell and none of his siblings went down to pay him a visit, she would be safe. He wouldn't have a way to harm her if everyone just let him suffer on his own and that felt oddly relieving to the devil in question.

Lucifer guided Chloe to the loveseat and with all the care in the world he placed her on top of his chest, letting her snuggle against the warmth of his core. The physical contact after over a week of them being distant felt like an oasis in the middle of the desert, and he sure was going to enjoy that. He couldn't go down to Hell to give Ansel a piece of his mind and the fury of his fists but he had her, he would always have her.

"Do you... do you know what he might have wanted to do to the baby?" Chloe asks after a little while of silence, treading carefully so she wouldn't make Lucifer's hatred towards his brother grow any larger.

"I truly don't know," he answers, letting out a sigh of resignation. "How did you say the light was?"

"Very bright and white. Like, seriously, the brightest and cleanest white I've ever seen in my life," Chloe explains, snuggling deeper into the warmth of Lucifer's chest. She really didn't want to talk about it anymore but she understood Lucifer's need to. "Almost heavenly," she adds, sneaking one of her hands down so it could be by her stomach. It was still so hard to process the fact that such light and such thing had come from within her, from the tiny little blob that was her son or daughter.

"I..." Lucifer stuttered, suddenly becoming tense underneath her, like he had realized something, or rather confirmed something astonishing.

"What is it?" Chloe barely lifts her head up so her eyes can meet Lucifer's, but instead of finding him worried or freaking out like she had expected him to, she finds him with a small smile splattered across his face. Well, that was new, considering they were talking about their baby.

"I think the spawn may have inherited my powers," at that Chloe scowls, not liking the way he phrased it because it was making her mind go crazy with questions and such. The only reason why she wasn't freaking out was because Lucifer seemed to be so calm about it.

"First, don't call it a spawn, second, explain yourself," she scolds him.

"Back when I was still an angel... a loyal one at least, I was called the Lightbringer," Chloe frowns slightly, finding it hard to understand how an angel that had been called the Lightbringer had been cast out of Heaven. To her little knowledge, that title seemed to be big and important, so how could someone like that just turn to pure evil from one day to another as the bible said? "No one ever understood why it was me though, maybe because I was the favorite son. It's completely independent of my powers with desire, it just was there. Until one day, after I had started my rebellion, dad discovered that besides him the only one who could make the flaming sword work was me,"

"Wait, I got lost. What's this flaming sword?" She asks confusedly, leaning on the devil's chest so she could look at him as he spoke. It would look to be uncomfortable from the outside but he wasn't complaining so she remained comfortable right where she was.

"Oh, sorry. Right, it was a sword that could cut through the gates of Heaven, besides doing all sorts of powerful, potentially harming things, like creating another universe, for example," Chloe murmured a small 'oh', lacking the words to voice her surprise about the subject. "And I found out while my mother was here that I could also ignite it. I supposed father found out and that was what made him throw me out of Heaven, I guess knowing that the rebellious son could also wield the same weapons he could did it to him,"

"I never imagined God to be so insecure," Chloe comments in a low voice, imagining the situation. A father throwing his son out of the house because he had the potential to hold the same power as he did, that had to be truly awful.

"If you think my ego is big, his is a thousand times bigger. I guess he just couldn't live with the fact that I could hold the same power over Heaven as he did, so he threw me out without saying a thing. Still, all family drama aside, the Lightbringer thing never had any purpose other than igniting the sword, not that I know of, at least," Lucifer explains, liking that Chloe was feeling curious about the whole divinity thing. He still couldn't understand, though, why would Ansel want anything to do with the baby? It wasn't as if light-bringing was useful anymore, and the fact that he couldn't find a connection pissed him off. "If he was after the light-bringing powers it wouldn't make sense. I sent the flaming sword together with mum to a new universe and I don't think there's any other celestial object that needs it to work"

"So we have nothing," Chloe comments, still trying to wrap her head around everything divinity entailed. Truth to be told, she was almost completely sure she would never understand all of it.

"All the other relics of Heaven I can think of are completely useless, it doesn't make sense to me why he would have wanted my powers," Lucifer was just as lost as Chloe was, only that his emotions were still clouded by the hatred and anger he felt towards his brother for putting Chloe's life on the line. He would never be able to forgive him for that, if the chance to do so ever came, of course.

"I was thinking... Maybe we could ask Ameandiel to fly up to Heaven and ask your siblings if they know anything," Chloe suggests, lying her head back on top of Lucifer's chest and trying to relax a little bit. If everything Lucifer told her was right, it meant that Ansel was looking for the light-bringing powers of her baby, but what for? Why would he want them if the only weapon they could wield was literally in another universe?

"I don't think they know anything," he sighs, bringing one of his hands up towards Chloe's head to lovingly pet her. "I didn't know Ansel that well but he was pretty secretive, he wasn't much of a talker,"

"So, in conclusion, we just have to be glad he's stuck in Hell and isn't able to hurt us anymore," Chloe sighs heavily, wanting answers. "I guess it's the detective in me, and also the fact that he threatened _my_ child, that wants to know why he did it,"

"If you'd just let me pop down to Hell and torture him for a bit... maybe I could get some answers," Lucifer suggests, to which Chloe is quick to deny.

"No way," she tightens her hold on him, clinging to his chest like an octopus. "I'm not taking any chances,"

"Always so stubborn," he smiles at that, hugging Chloe just as tightly as she was hugging him. He really understood her fear and, truth to be told, he really didn't fancy the idea of being stuck in Hell for another millennium, which meant he would have to get a hold of himself and try not to let his emotions get the best of him. However, keeping himself calm and composed was something he was still learning how to do.

They heard the front door unlock and, while Lucifer tensed up and tried to check who was there, Chloe remained completely calm. Soon enough they heard the biggest squeal of joy and had a harmful of Trixie jumping on top of them.

"Lucifer!" Chloe is quick to lower a hand down to her stomach to prevent Trixie's excitement from kicking her there.

"Hello, child," he says rather uncomfortably, unable to stop his first reaction towards Trixie clashing on top of them.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't know..." the woman on her living room doorway looked awkward, but her expression slowly subsided when she noticed they were both dressed. Evidently, the first thing that came to her mind was that they were having sex, it's always like that.

"It's okay, Sharon," Chloe frees herself from Lucifer's not so tight hold and Trixie's weight and stands up, quickly walking towards her neighbor. "Is the party over already?" She asks, knowing that Trixie was supposed to be next door up until about eight.

"Yeah, parents are coming back to pick their kids up so I thought I'd walk Trixie here before it got too busy," the woman explains as her eyes divert towards the man and child laying on her couch. Of course, she had to be eyeing Lucifer hungrily.

"Thank you so much, did they have a good time?" She asks, trying to get her neighbor's eyes back on her.

"Yeah, lots of kids, lots of sugar. You know how it is," she says, glancing back at Chloe before letting her eyes fall on Lucifer and Trixie once again. Trixie was tightly hugging him by the waist while he was trying to stand up, and well... considering the fact that Lucifer was really good looking and that he was interacting with a child, Chloe would understand why she wouldn't want to tear her eyes off of him.

"I'm so glad," Chloe says genuinely, trying to get her head around the fact that Trixie would stay up past her bedtime that night. Every time she came back from a birthday party she would always have like some sort of sugar high, and wouldn't want to go to sleep.

"Yeah, me too, they had a really good time," Chloe feels Lucifer as he walks up behind her, placing a warm hand on the small of her back and standing right beside her.

"Everything alright?" He asks, seemingly lost.

"Yeah, babe. Sharon just dropped Trixie off from her party. Thank you, again," she said that last bit almost cynically, feeling territorial of her man. She couldn't be blamed, though, pregnancy hormones and women drooling over her boyfriend in front of her never mixed well.

"Of course," she had a hard time to get her eyes to focus back on Chloe.

"Mommy, why are there so many things on the floor?" Trixie came up to them, wrapping herself to Lucifer on a side hug. Chloe was surprised at how well he could conceal his uncomfortableness.

"Oh, yeah I... I better get going," Chloe's neighbor said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable at Trixie's innocent question.

"Tell Valentina I said happy birthday!" Chloe says right before the woman awkwardly walks out her front door, being left alone with her daughter and partner once again. "What did you say, honey?" Chloe talked to her daughter, looking down at her.

"Why are there so many things on the floor?" She asks again, turning around to face the living room and breaking her side hug with Lucifer.

"Oh, sorry. I knocked them over with my wings," Lucifer says nonchalantly, going back into the living room and starting to pick them up himself. He hadn't realized how much of a mess his wings had done, knocking over files that were on the coffee table, a flowerpot, and the actual telephone, along with many more things, mainly decorations.

"Oh. My. God. You have wings?!" The little girl exclaimed excitedly, rushing over to her devil friend and quickly helping him put everything back in place. Lucifer could sense Chloe's disapproval being sent to him like daggers stabbing his back, probably at the prospect that he could be very well introducing a nine-year-old to the concept of divinity.

"Wrong deity, and yes, I do," he says simply, picking up the telephone and placing it back to the small table tight beside the large couch.

"Lucifer..." Chloe said warningly, stepping in and being torn at the scene she was watching. Lucifer and Trixie looked so cute while cleaning up that it made her want to smile from ear to ear, but the fact that they were talking about Lucifer's wings made her feel uneasy.

"Please, can I see them?!"

"Ask your mother," Lucifer was quick to say, picking up the last case file and placing it on the coffee table, looking at Chloe expectantly.

"But wait, aren't you the devil? Why would the devil have wings? Wasn't it that only angels had them?" At that, both adults remained stoic. Trixie was speaking about Lucifer's identity as if she'd always known about it, as if she knew who he really was. Lucifer and Chloe shared a startled look before their eyes fell back on the nine-year-old in question.

"Wait, you know?" Chloe asked her, the room suddenly far too still.

"Well, duh. Maze showed me her demon face once, it was really cool," Trixie was oddly calm about it all, so much that she had known the truth for all that time and Chloe hadn't known. How could her nine-year-old daughter have found out about divinity before she did and have taken it far better?

"She did what?" Chloe asked, clearly dumbstruck. "When was that?"

"Halloween last year, when she took me trick or treating, remember?" Trixie truly couldn't understand why Lucifer and her mom were looking at her like she was crazy.

"And it didn't scare you? Are you fine with it?" It was Lucifer's turn to ask, clearly amazed but oddly in a good way. He had always thought that Trixie was special, for one, she had been the first child since the beginning of time that didn't completely repulse him.

"Why would it? I think it's really cool," Lucifer and Chloe shared equally dumbstruck looks before looking back at Trixie like she had grown a third eye. Chloe suddenly felt ashamed that her daughter had taken it so well and that she, on the other hand, had to run away to Europe for a month. "Now, can I please see your wings?" Lucifer looked at Chloe once again, waiting for her permission. She just shrugged, completely shocked by all she had just learned during those last five minutes.

"Not here, though. I don't want to knock everything over again," Lucifer reluctantly allowed the nine-year-old to grab him by the hand and pull him towards the big hallway the house had, giving him enough space to unfurl his wings as he pleased. When Trixie tried to go after him, though, Chloe held her back against her front so she wouldn't be accidentally hit by one of them. "Do you really want me to show you?" Lucifer had to double-check, still in disbelief that the child could be so intelligent but overall, so accepting. She had to be the only human he knew that didn't run away when finding out, and he didn't know how to feel about that.

When Trixie gave him an exciting nod and two big thumbs up, he sighed loudly and proceeded to unfurl his white, feathery wings for her to see. Needless to say, the child gasped loudly when the two, almost seven feet wide wings sprouted out of his back.

"Oh my God, they are so cool!" She jumped excitedly and broke free from her mother's light hold, immediately running over to Lucifer and reaching out to touch one of them.

"Again, wrong deity, and..." he was unable to keep talking because when her little hands made contact with his feathers it made a shiver run down his spine. It had been ages since the last time anyone had groomed his wings and Trixie's touch had been the most resembling thing to that he had ever felt in a while. It was, for lack of a better word to say, overwhelming.

"Are they ticklish?" She asked innocently, suddenly too encouraged to keep running her fingers through the heavenly white, soft feathers. He gasped in surprise, swamped by how much trust the child seemed to have towards him.

"No, they're not. It's like when your mother runs her fingers through your hair," he finds himself explaining, all under the astonished but positively overwhelmed weight of Chloe's gaze.

"I don't like it when she does that," she tries to bring her hands up higher to reach for the smaller feathers at the top, but Lucifer is far too tall for her to get to touch them. So he does the one thing he is completely sure he never did before; he grabs Trixie by her armpits and lifts her up, letting her sit on his right hip so she could reach his feathers more easily. The first thing he notices, though, instead of the fact that he was holding a child, was that she was impressively light for her size.

"Well, I do, it feels really nice," he is able to hear Chloe's smile from the living room's hallway, and when he turns his head towards her he finds it there; easily one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen, painting Chloe's face beautifully.

"Mommy, come! You have to see how soft they are!" She says, getting comfortable in Lucifer's arms. It was as clear as water the fact that the devil had never held a child before, but seeing him do that now was making Chloe's stomach go wild with butterflies.

"I know, monkey," she walks towards them anyway, asking Lucifer for permission with her eyes and ultimately, reaching her hand out so her fingers would brush against the heavenly feathers. She had seen and touched his wings before, but it never ceased to amaze her the divinity they held, how beautiful and how meaningful they were. "They truly are gorgeous,"

"It's been a while since I last had someone grooming them," he comments, letting himself enjoy the awestruck but careful touch of the woman he loved and the spawn he was growing fonder and fonder of.

"Will it hurt if I pluck a feather?" Trixie asked innocently, letting her hands roam all over the top of Lucifer's right wing. She was having the time of her life with them, and neither Chloe nor Lucifer could understand how she wasn't just a tiny little bit more surprised about the whole subject.

"Don't you dare, of course, it will," he is quick to say, making it sound more animated than he intended to.

"I still don't understand. If you're the devil, why do you have wings?" Her voice is sweet and curious; hands never stopping their grooming on the top of Lucifer's right wing.

"Well, I used to be an angel and live in Heaven before I became the devil," he explains, surprised at himself that he hadn't felt the need to put her down yet. "And even after I fell I was still an angel, I guess I'll always be one,"

"You used to live in Heaven?" Lucifer nods at her question, quickly eyeing Chloe. She was just watching the interaction from the outside and she was just so glad she was able to experience that, to see the love of her life act like _that_ with her daughter. "Is my grandpa John up in Heaven?" And at that, Chloe's heart breaks slightly. She can see Lucifer doesn't know what to answer her, but as always, he ends up going with the truth.

"I don't know. It's been a couple of thousand of years since I've been there—"

"—He is, baby. He is," Chloe sighs, slightly looking up to the ceiling, gesture that didn't go by unnoticed by Lucifer. "Amenadiel, Lucifer's brother, told me he was"

"Is he an angel, too?" Chloe nods, and Lucifer is left speechless once again.

She had said 'too'. She had thought of him as an angel, she had never once brought up all the evil he had been associated with throughout history, she had never feared him, in fact, she had seemed to love the idea of him even more. It made his heart feel warm with something he couldn't put a name to, but all he knew about it was that it felt _right_ and that he _wanted_ to feel it.

"Will the baby have wings, too?" She was just blurting out question after question, too excited and amazed to not do so. Lucifer looked at Chloe and when their eyes met, all there was between them was uncertainty.

"I don't know, will it? Charlie doesn't have wings," Chloe says, looking directly at Lucifer and hoping he would just answer the question. The truth was, Chloe was already feeling like her pregnancy was far too different from Linda's, so what if their babies were different, too. What if her child came out with wings? Of course, that didn't settle in right with her and a thousand and one questions started to flood up her mind, all of them varying from if it would be safe to deliver it to if she should avoid hospitals so other people wouldn't find out she was going to give birth to an angel. Lucifer was quick to note her quiet freaking out, so he was also quick to try and lighten the mood.

"Aren't you like a factory of questions?" He teases Trixie, making her giggle loudly. "I don't think so, no. It's only a half-angel," he says, looking straight into Chloe's eyes and noticing how the stroking of her fingers on his wing became faster. Chloe sighs worriedly and then looks up at him, feeling oddly secure and comforted by his words. He had always had that thing that made you believe whatever it was he was saying.

They spent the rest of the evening together, as any family would. Trixie had begged him not to put his wings away because she had loved them so much, but Lucifer argued they were far too big and inconvenient to walk around with so he eventually ended up putting them away. The little girl had so many questions and so much excitement within her tiny body that neither Lucifer or Chloe were sure they'd be able to keep up, it wasn't physically possible to answer so many questions in so little time.

During that time spent with Chloe and Trixie, Lucifer was forced to draw out to a conclusion. He had met adult human beings that could never even aim to be as nice and just good as Trixie had been, and she was just a child. That made him feel hope, it reassured him of the fact that not all children were bad and that in fact, some of them could be very special, it was just a matter of how they grew up. Now, the only problem was, he would never think of himself as someone able to raise a kid and have him or her be even half as nice as Trixie was. She had been so understanding of him, so not judgmental. She had seen Maze's demon face and had thought of it as _cool_ , she had seen his wings and jumped from excitement, not fear. She had known about divinity probably for the longest and had been the one to take it the best, so much that no one even noticed. It was so overwhelming to him, for the first time he was starting to feel a nice kind of attachment to someone, and out of the seven billion people there were on earth, it was a child. If someone had told him he would be feeling this way a year ago, he would have laughed in their faces. Hell, he was having a child of his own, how crazy was that?

After they had a late dinner, Trixie insisted she wanted to watch a movie with them. With all the sugar she had eaten during that birthday party she would be jumping around for a while, Chloe was painfully aware of that. After she settled on watching The Croods for the fourth time that week, the three of them— or four, depending on how you thought about it,— sat on the largest couch; Chloe sat between Lucifer's legs and with her back against his chest, and Trixie laying over her, using her stomach as a pillow.

Sometime in between where Eep meets Guy and The Croods find a new, bright, and possibly dangerous world, Trixie finally falls asleep, cuddling closer to Chloe and lightly hugging her stomach. She really didn't see it coming, knowing that she had eaten so many sugary things she thought she would just jump around them for at least an hour past her bedtime when in reality she fell asleep right on time. That left Lucifer —who never thought would be spending a Thursday night watching an animated movie about cavemen— and Chloe on their own, just enjoying each other's presence.

They actually watched the movie because it was kind of funny, even for adults, all while trying to laugh without waking Trixie up. There was a moment, though, that both of them would highlight, where Lucifer's hand wrapped around Chloe's midriff and therefore ended on her stomach. She quickly laced her own hand with his and left it there, just letting him get back in touch with their new reality. He, surprisingly, didn't feel as overwhelmed as he used to at the prospect of hearing the baby's heartbeat, and while he didn't feel completely comfortable, he allowed himself to leave his hand on her stomach, letting the fast and rhythmic sound be heard at the back of his mind for the rest of the movie.

It was during that moment where he softly told Chloe he would be going with her to her next doctor's appointment, growing surer of his stance towards fatherhood at least just a little. He knew it would take time for him to completely get on board with the idea, but he could already feel himself changing and, although it was utterly terrifying, it was for the better good. For Chloe, he would give his life, and Trixie was also crawling her way into his heart.

Children couldn't be so bad, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna know what you think baby Deckerstar is, I'm hearing you!! ⬇️⬇️


	13. Chapter XIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, first and foremost, this fanfiction really needs a change of title. I saw so many comments about people thinking the baby will be a girl because of it and it's just...
> 
> The title stands for how Chloe has the devil's eyes on her, how Lucifer is so in love with her that he'd do anything to make her happy, even becoming a father or going against his instincts or what his nature or history told him to be. Maybe it was my fault because of the whole 'language barrier' thing and the fact that English is my second language, so for that, I'm sorry. 
> 
> Now, seeing as it got widely mistaken, I suggest a change of title that would be official the moment I upload chapter 14. The title would be:
> 
> "Tell me goodbye, but let me remember you"
> 
> Which I think fits a lot better with the story and will avoid confusions for any future readers, and is of course, based on the first chapter. I need to know what you think about it, I want to hear what you have to say.
> 
> Without further adieu, I'll leave you to the 7k words that make up chapter 13. Hope you like it!!
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> PS: Chapter 14 will probably take me some time to upload because it's a chapter with a case I have to build and it'll be lengthy, that's for sure. Like, my 130k word limit just flew out of the window the moment I read that you guys seem to like wordy stories and since I seem to love writing them... we got ourselves a deal!
> 
> Love ya!!

Ever since Lucifer showed Trixie his wings, things had been moving forward and for the better. Chloe couldn't be more glad to see him try and be more open to children, and it truly melted her heart seeing him interact with her. Well, that would be kind of subjective since she has found herself to be quite emotional as of late, and also, Lucifer looked really hot when around children.

That was another thing that had changed the minute Chloe stepped into the second trimester. There were sometimes where she couldn't even stand herself from how horny and needy she was and thankfully Lucifer had the stamina of an angel, otherwise things would have turned out to be pretty different. He couldn't complain, though, he could even say he was having sex far more often than he anticipated, if anything, he was pleasantly surprised. Chloe seemed to be insatiable and Lucifer was loving it.

Stepping into the second trimester also had its downsides. Long gone were the days where Chloe could just randomly pick out a pair of jeans from her closet and throw them on, now she had to start wearing maternity jeans but luckily, all of her tops seemed to fit her just fine. Maybe it was because it was her second pregnancy and she wasn't known to work out, or maybe because their baby was just big, but she was already showing a bit too much for her liking and she couldn't help it but feel curious eyes on her during work hours. Truth to be told, she was starting to feel really insecure about her body and she was only fourteen weeks along; she didn't want to know how she would feel about it once she got further along. Lucifer insisted that she looked gorgeous and that the bump on her lower stomach made her look cute, which only earned him narrow, piercing blue eyes staring back at him, an angry 'I don't wanna be cute, I wanna be sexy' and the silent treatment for the rest of the day. No one could blame her, though, she was just far too hormonal.

That morning had started off particularly bumpy. Lucifer had to give Chloe a pep talk on how she would always look beautiful to him, no matter what; both of them standing right in front of the floor-length mirror Chloe had in her room. She had the waistband of her black maternity jeans lowered and was deep in thought staring at her growing belly. Luckily, the jeans she had bought back when she was pregnant with Trixie still fit her and were pretty plain, so they'd go with anything. She did look good, and she still had the chance to conceal her belly with clothing as it was December 20th already, but the heating was always on down by the precinct, so it was physically impossible to keep her coat and warm winter clothes on for too long. She was getting used to the idea that someday everyone would know and that she just couldn't keep hiding, so she would try and not pay much attention to it.

It was nearing two in the afternoon and they were working a case as they usually did. Chloe was thoroughly looking into it but all the evidence found pointed towards suicide, so there wouldn't be much else for them to do once it got confirmed. They had stopped by Ella's lab to get all the information on forensics but the lab tech and been far more interested in their personal life and in the fact that they had a doctor's appointment at three o'clock that afternoon. She was just really excited and happy for them and, of course, wanted to know everything but Lucifer and Chloe just kept it simple. They didn't know much, and most of what they did know was associated with divinity so they couldn't tell them, which in the end meant that the very few people that knew about baby Morningstar knew very little about it.

"Ella, I'm putting this case to bed. This is totally suicide, there's nothing for homicide to do here," she says as Ella hands her the autopsy report; cause of death was an overdose of opioids consistent with the ones the victim was holding when they found her. After a little more digging they found she had severe anxiety and depression ongoing for several years by then, so there wasn't anything else they could do.

"Poor girl, rest in peace, Micah," Ella says shortly, looking down to the floor for just a moment. Everyone loved how she was so caring and respectful towards the victims. Chloe had expected Lucifer to say something about God's relationship with suicide but surprisingly, she found him quietly staring at the report on her hands. "Are you leaving already?" Ella asks her then, looking at the quiet Lucifer standing by her side. Now that she thought about it, he had been awfully quiet since morning.

"Yes, we have the appointment at three but we have to pick Trixie up first," she closes the case file on her hands and smiles lightly at Ella.

"We're taking the spawn?" Lucifer asks her then, catching the words 'Trixie' and 'pick up'.

"Yeah, I told her she could come with me to my next appointment and she's really excited," Ella tries to keep her smile down but fails miserably. She just loved them together so much and had literally waited for years for them to get their heads out of their asses, she was allowed to show how happy she was how that they had finally admitted they loved each other.

"Oh my God, I love you guys together so much! You're so going to be the best parents and have the prettiest babies ever!" She says excitedly, clearly looking down at Chloe's belly.

"Baby, singular, and thank you, Miss Lopez," he turns his body slightly towards his detective. "Shall we leave, my dear?"

"Sure, I'll just leave this down by my desk and Olivia already knows we're leaving for the day," she explains, unconsciously seeking the warmth of the devil's core. "Thank you so much, Ella. See you tomorrow,"

And with that they left the precinct, mentally preparing themselves for what was to come. Chloe, particularly, wasn't so scared or concerned. She had already seen the baby and it had been very reassuring to know that everything looked normal and within what was expected, but Lucifer on the other hand... he had been a mess.

Chloe's appointment had been originally set for the twelfth-week mark, but being caught up with a tough case and having Trixie getting sick had forced them to postpone. That setback had messed with Lucifer in a way that played more with his anxiety than everything, and he just couldn't wait to have it done, wanting to take the weight off his shoulders. Once he came to terms with coming with Chloe to an ultrasound and being involved, he had expected the appointment to be within the next couple of days. However, given the complications, Lucifer had to deal with all his anxiety towards the appointment for another two extra weeks, which meant everyone had to deal with a fidgety devil in all aspects of life.

Now, though, everything should be resolved. They would head to the hospital, have the scan done, and be on their merry way, hopefully knowing that everything was alright.

And that was another whole problem in itself. Lucifer didn't know what to expect, what he'd see, what he'd feel. He didn't know if seeing his child would bring him closer to it or do the opposite, how the realization that everything was real would sink in. He wasn't afraid for himself, he was afraid for Chloe since he could tell she had already gotten her expectations up, and even if he would do the impossible to meet them he just feared he wouldn't be good enough. He wanted to be good for her, for themselves.

They picked Trixie up and Chloe drove them all to the hospital. Thankfully, Lucifer had less time to overthink because having a nine-year-old in the backseat of the car babbling about her sibling was very distracting, thus the rest to the drive to the hospital had been done under an awfully calm but disorganized mindset.

"Mommy, what do you think the baby will be?" Trixie asks innocently as Chloe parks the car in the seemingly last parking space at the hospital.

"I don't know, baby, I haven't thought about it yet," Chloe answers honestly, giving Lucifer a sympathetic look before freeing herself from the seatbelt. He was staring off into space, probably doing a bit too much of thinking.

"But if you just had to guess, right now, what would you say?" The little girl insisted, unbuckling herself as well.

"Um, let me think," Chloe actually thinks about what her daughter had asked.

With work, Ansel's attack, dealing with Lucifer when he found out and coming to terms with what having a celestial child meant, Chloe hadn't stopped for even a second to think about what their baby would be, it just wasn't too high up in her priority list. She would be happy with whatever her baby was or wanted to become in the future, she would love it unconditionally either way, but if she really thought about it she would love to have a boy and experiment what having a son would be like. A little boy with Lucifer's hair— which she knew was very curly but Lucifer refused to let be— and his eyes and nose and... she truly wouldn't be mad if she were literally growing a clone of his love, their child would just be beautiful.

"I think it's a boy," she says, completely unable to get her mind off of the idea of a little boy with all of Lucifer's features. He would be so cute and perfect and all of a sudden she was already picturing all of the things they would buy for him and how everything would be with a son in their lives. Now that she had given herself permission to think about the future she just couldn't stop.

"Really?" Trixie asked with a disgusted tone of voice. "I want it to be a girl so we can share toys and play together!" She exclaims, evidently overexcited. Both, Chloe and Lucifer, already knew Trixie desperately wanted a sister, she would be crushed if the baby turned out to be a boy.

"Monkey, you know we're not finding out today, right?" Chloe says, trying to bring her down from her overexcitement.

"Yeah, I know, mommy. It's too early," she pouts slightly, trying to keep in her eagerness to know.

They get out of the car after Chloe gives her daughter a sympathetic smile. She was so excited to know that she had contemplated doing a blood test just to find out the gender but ultimately she decided against it. She didn't want to risk getting celestial blood into some lab's database, so they would just have to wait until the anatomy scan on week twenty. Truth to be told, she was hesitant even about having their baby at the hospital given all the testing they had to do before they got discharged.

She grabbed her daughter's hand and together, the three of them, made their way towards the entrance of the hospital. They had quite a bit of walking to do since the maternity ward was on the opposite side from where Chloe had parked her car, but luckily they had come with time to spare.

Right when they were about to step into the building, Trixie's little hand slipped into Lucifer's big and warm one and grabbed it, walking in between the adults with both hands on hers. Chloe could see how Lucifer flinched uncomfortably at the gesture but her heart melted just a tiny bit more when he didn't try to get rid of her daughter's hold. Sometimes he would do those tiny little gestures that would get her heart racing with pride and love and she just didn't know what to do with herself.

"Lucifer, what do you think the baby will be?" Trixie asks him then, looking up to meet his dark, very troubled eyes.

"I..." he hesitates, not knowing what to answer. Truth to be told, just the knowledge that he was having a child had been enough, he hadn't stopped to think about that sort of stuff. "I don't know, spawn," he sighs, walking through the hallways of the hospital.

"Then what do you want it to be?" She asks again, gripping onto his hand a little bit stronger. Lucifer sighed, not knowing the answer to that question either.

"I... I guess I'm fine with either one," he says, trying to picture himself as a father. The image itself was making him cringe pretty badly but then he remembered who and why he was doing this for, so his cringe subsided and an actual smile crept up his lips. It was small but it was there and for now, that was more than enough.

Chloe just had to look at Trixie for her to stop pestering Lucifer with questions. Chloe would never understand the entirety of what was going through his mind but she could understand he was afraid and that the gender of their child, of all things, had been the one thing he least paid attention to. There were far more important issues regarding their child than the gender it was, like the powers it would have or if it would actually come out with wings or not. Even if what Linda had gone through with her pregnancy could be used as a reference, things had already been far too different, they already knew their child had powers.

They sat in the maternity waiting room, surrounded by heavily and not so heavily pregnant women and their companions. Chloe, for one, was grateful that she wasn't alone this time and that she had her daughter and devil with her to experience it together. She never wanted to go to an appointment alone again, finding the scene before her eyes to be far too valuable for her to miss. Trixie had climbed her way up Lucifer's lap the minute he sat down, and although he looked uncomfortable as Hell, he made no comment about it in the slightest. He even started bouncing his leg at one moment— out of nervousness and anxiety mainly—, but he managed to calm down when he heard Trixie's giggles at the fast movement, bouncing up and down on his leg and having the time of her life. The thing that was the most priceless, though, was seeing the joy and happiness it brought to Chloe's face to see him like that with the spawn, understanding how much it meant to her that he was trying.

A couple of minutes later Chloe was called in so they could take all her stats like weight, height, and blood pressure. She went in alone after telling Lucifer and Trixie that the room was far too small for all of them to be there and that she would call them once all of that was over, leaving Lucifer and Trixie on their own. Before she entered the room, though, she noticed all the hungry looks Lucifer was receiving, and okay, she understood the appeal, seeing someone as handsome and big as him with a little girl like Trixie could be endearing and hot at the same time, but she couldn't help it but feel a little insecure. Lucifer could literally have anyone he desired, male or female, and yet he had chosen the one person he knew he couldn't have so easily. Maybe her hormones were interfering a little bit too much with her thinking but she just felt insecure, what if he got tired of the chase? What if the thrill of going after her subsided and he left? What if he ever wanted his old life back? All that questioning, however, managed to die down when he made eye contact with her. His eyes were always so expressive and always said so much; Chloe could see right through them and could _feel_ the love he had for her. She couldn't be more thankful to have that kind of reassurance whenever she felt insecure.

She gave him one last short and shy smile before entering the room, officially leaving him and Trixie on their own, wishing she could be a fly on the wall to see what they got up to. How could she ever doubt what he felt towards her? The man, who had always been known for despising children with his whole being, was actually trying to be there for her daughter and be there for her and their child. Just when she thought she couldn't be more in love with him...

"Can you bounce your leg again?" Trixie asked him, turning her torso almost one hundred and eighty degrees so she could face him.

"Excuse me?" He had been deep in thought, barely noticing that the child had spoken to him.

"Can you bounce your leg again?" She repeated, smiling widely.

"Uh, don't you want to, I don't know, sit on a chair?" He points to the chair right beside his, the one Chloe had left empty.

"Please?" She begs, extending the sound of the 'e'. Lucifer was pretty aware of all the looks he was receiving, all the women and men that were hungrily looking at him. It had never bothered him before but now, he kind of felt as if he were suffocating, only wanting Chloe.

"Okay," he sighs and he starts bouncing his leg up and down, trying to concentrate only on the giggles of the nine-year-old sitting on his lap. He found himself putting his hands on her sides, trying to keep her from falling down to the floor and actually trying to protect her. Needless to say, he was initially taken aback by his own instinctive reaction but after a couple of seconds, he just sighed and tried to come to terms with the fact that he was really changing and that it was also a very good thing.

"Lucifer, are you happy that mommy is having a baby?" Trixie asks him after a couple of minutes, making his leg suddenly become still. He really wasn't expecting that.

"Pardon me?"

"Are you happy that mommy is having a baby?" She asks again, putting both of her legs towards one side so she could face the devil more easily.

"I..." he sighed, mentally cursing his father for having made that child so damn intelligent and curious. "Why are you asking me that?"

"Because you don't look happy," she says, suddenly all too serious and mature for her age. "But you also don't look sad, so I don't know how you're feeling,"

"I'm not sad, it's just..." damn it, Chloe had made a really good job raising that kid up. She was so attentive and sweet and he just... he really didn't know how to explain it to her. "You know how I've been alive for a really long time, right?"

"Since the beginning of time," she adds, smiling softly.

"Exactly, and for most of my life I didn't even know what a child was, we angels don't grow up like humans," he explains, trying to keep it as simple as possible. After all, he was talking to a nine-year-old, he couldn't go much into detail about celestial biology. "Then, when I became the devil, I started to come to Earth more often and I met those of your kind,"

"Kids, you mean?" Trixie asks him, smiling at the funny face he involuntarily pulled.

"Yes, children. And I really, really didn't like them,"

"Why?" He still couldn't believe she was so open to hearing about divinity, how open-minded she was.

"Because you are really clingy, you always have sticky stuff in your hands, you have I can't even count how many needs and it's just... Having children around didn't sit well with the life I wanted to have,"

"You mean drinking lots of alcohol and doing lots of adult stuff?" He wouldn't even try to wonder how she knew all of that.

"Exactly," he sighs softly. "But then I met your mother, and therefore you, and you both kind of shifted my paradigms around,"

"What's a paradigm?" He allowed himself to think that she sounded cute when asking that question.

"It's a model, something you use as a reference, an absolute truth," he explains to her, recalling those last two years he and been on Earth and how much Chloe had impacted his life. "And I guess your mother helped me understand commitment was something good, and you are helping me understand children aren't so bad,"

"Does that mean you like me?" She asks excitedly, smiling so big it made her eyes crinkle and shine with glee. He looks into her beautiful dark eyes and chokes out a laugh, finally beginning to understand what humans saw in children. They could really be deceptive little parasites after all but in the best way possible.

"I do spawn, I do," he says, and all of a sudden he has an armful of Trixie clinging to him like a lifeline, hugging him tightly. Her small arms wrapped around his neck as she buried her face in the crook of his neck, letting the devil feel her smiling against his suit. For a moment he didn't know what to do but understanding the fact that Trixie seemed to need the confirmation, he placed both of his hands on her small back, softly returning the hug. "If I ever manage to raise your sibling to become half as kind and lovely as you are, then I'll be the happiest devil on Earth,"

"Really?" Lucifer nods softly, unconsciously tightening his hug. He could deny it all he wanted but that little girl was special, really special. "I really love that you are my stepdad now,"

"You do?" The little girl nods excitedly, pulling away from the hug to look at the devil in the eyes.

"Or step devil, I like that better," Lucifer smiles at her, still unable to believe how much acceptance and love could fit inside the tiny body of a nine-year-old. She had so much love to give, so much trust, there were adults on Earth that had less than a tenth of the kindness that little girl held. She hugs him tightly again and the question 'why aren't you afraid of me?' is about to leave his lips when he sees Chloe's head poking out of the doctor's office, making them faces for them to join her. Her strong semblance falls immediately when she sees the little girl clinging to Lucifer like a koala bear, hugging the life out of him. Lucifer smiles softly at her and stands up without much of a hustle, carrying the girl in his arms.

"Come on, spawn, your mother's calling for us," he settles the little girl on his hip and walks towards the office; Trixie having long forgotten the bonding moment she was having with the devil and having her focus set completely on seeing her sibling.

They step into a hallway that on one side had offices for taking measurements and vitals and on the other it had normal Ob/Gyn offices for consultation. They quickly make their way to office number five; Chloe sneaking glances towards the devil and her daughter and wondering what they had been up to. She was completely transparent and the glee it brought seeing Lucifer and Trixie so close was practically dripping from her face.

They get inside office number five, which was empty, and Chloe quickly makes her way to sit on top of the stretcher, dangling her feet over the edge.

"What were you two up to, huh?" She asks them; wide smile plastered on her face.

"Oh, she was just being her pesky little self," Chloe pretends to frown at Trixie but the happiness she felt was far too great for it to grow any larger.

"We were talking but we can't tell you. Step-devil/step-daughter confidentiality," Trixie teases, getting herself comfortable on Lucifer's lap once again. Chloe puts her mouth in an 'O' shape, faking disbelief.

"Oh, I see. That's how it's going to work? If you like Lucifer so much then he can be the one to read your bedtime story tonight," Chloe said that as a jokingly way to tease her daughter, but when her expression lighted up she knew Lucifer was screwed.

"Yay! Can you?" She turned towards the devil, pleading with her eyes that he'd say yes to reading her bedtime stories.

"Uh, I guess I can... Hell, if Maze could do it," Lucifer says, completely dismissive of what reading to a nine-year-old would mean.

"I'm going to remind you of that tonight," Chloe teases him, smiling so widely it hurt. It had been a while since she had felt so happy and just... complete. That would be the best fitting word to describe how she felt.

"Hello, Miss Decker..." Doctor Carter enters the room, stopping in his tracks when he sees that Chloe brought people with her to the consultation. "I see you've brought company,"

"I have, yeah. Hope that's okay," she says, quickly changing the focus of her attention but not letting the smile on her face dim the slightest.

"It's perfect," he walks up to her and extends a hand towards Lucifer, greeting him politely. "Doctor Jeremy Carter, I'll be monitoring Chloe's pregnancy up until she gives birth and afterward,"

"Lucifer Morningstar, nice to meet you," he responds in his always so polite way, stretching out his own hand to do a handshake all while Trixie watches the interaction carefully. The doctor tries not to but ends up pulling a face the moment he hears Lucifer's name, probably recognizing him as the owner of Lux or just thinking he was nuts. It was probably the second one.

"And you must be..." he goes to introduce himself to Trixie, but the little girl is quicker than him.

"Trixie Espinoza, nice to meet you," he imitates exactly what Lucifer said and did, earning a soft smile from Chloe. She loved the relationship that was blooming between them now that Lucifer had brought down his barriers towards her.

"The same I say," says the doctor, holding Trixie's little hand and smiling. It was wild to think that a bit over nine years ago he brought that girl into the world. "Chloe, how have you been feeling?" He asks Chloe, walking around the stretcher and sitting down on the chair right beside the ultrasound machine.

"Great, actually. Morning sickness almost died down completely after those pills you gave me, I've been sleeping well," Chloe explains while the doctor configures the machine, laying down on the reclined stretcher and eager to see her little nugget of joy. "Everything's been pretty good,"

"Well, I'm glad and I can tell. You've put on weight since your last visit which is always a good sign during pregnancy. Lift up your shirt and lower your jeans, please," he tells her, approaching with the gel and the ultrasound wand in hand. Now that she was further along the ultrasound could be done through her belly and still work just fine, thing she was glad for.

She does as she is told and then looks up to her right side to find the devil looking a little bit too worried; back to bouncing his leg up and down unconsciously. She takes his left, big hand into her right one and gives it a squeeze, bringing it up to her mouth to leave a chaste kiss over the back of it and try to reassure him.

"We'll be alright," she tells him, leaving his hand right by her mouth and kissing the back of it just once more. He gives her a half-smile; too many emotions roaming his body for him to manage something better.

"Look, Mommy! The baby doesn't look like a chicken nugget anymore!" Chloe had been so immersed in her tiny bubble that she hadn't even felt the cold gel going on her tummy or the pressure her doctor was applying with the wand. She turns her head to the left and looks at the monitor on her side, finding that Trixie was right. Their baby looked a lot more like a baby rather than a shapeless blob. Still, though, the proportions between its head and body were so off that it looked kind of funny, which would probably be a topic for Trixie or Lucifer to talk about. However, besides everything going through her mind regarding Lucifer and Trixie, her heart speeds up at the sight, delighted to finally see her little bundle of joy.

"It doesn't, baby," her smile could be heard in her voice; eyes unable to leave the screen.

"It looks like an alien," Lucifer comments, trying to get the image on the monitor to make sense. It was very probable that this was the first time he ever saw an ultrasound, so he was confused, to say the least. Chloe playfully smacks him on the nape, scolding him for having called their child an alien. "What was that for? The poor thing really is ugly!" He complains, making Chloe laugh rather than scold him further. The video on the screen moves when she laughs, momentarily losing the image of the baby.

"Is everything alright?" Chloe asks, turning her head back to the doctor and seeing him struggle to get the image of the baby back on display.

"Yeah, just... you have a sneaky little one in here," he comments, pressing the wand a bit harder on Chloe's stomach.

"See? Already just like you," she teases Lucifer, grabbing his hand once again and squeezing it for reassurance. She still had a feeling everything was alright, the one needing reassurance had to be the devil.

"There we—" the doctor doesn't finish the sentence, pressing buttons on the panel of the machine to see the image better "Oh,"

"What? Is everything alright?" Chloe asks, suddenly too worried. Trixie was looking at the monitor but not understanding much of what was happening there because the doctor had changed the angle and Lucifer... well, he was squeezing Chloe's hand a bit too much.

"I really meant it when I said you have a sneaky little one in there," he smiles, accommodating the wand so the image would be clearer. At that, Chloe's mouth goes from the widest smile to the widest 'O' possible, all while Lucifer and Trixie still don't understand a thing of what was going on. "Congratulations, guys. You're having fraternal twins,"

"We are having what?!" Chloe asks, completely speechless. There, on the screen, a little bit more than four feet away from her were two 'alien' babies clearly identifiable. They were facing each other's feet and were doing tiny little movements inside her womb, completely unaware of everything going on in the outside. She was brought back to reality when the hold of Lucifer's hand lost its grip, forcing her to look away from her _babies_ in favor of tending to Lucifer. Holy shit, there were _two_ of them.

"Wha—" he manages to say right before Chloe squeezes his hand really tightly, bringing his attention from the monitor to her.

"Please, don't faint," she asks him; panic painting her eyes. She wouldn't be able to deal with anything else right then.

"No, why would I—" his eyes make contact with the screen once again, being clearly able to see the two babies wiggling their legs inside his lover's womb. There really were two of them inside there... why... why wasn't he able to hear them both whenever he put his hand on her stomach, though? He had so many questions, so many insecurities. Every single issue he had with becoming a parent had doubled, quite literally. The saying 'double trouble' had never been more accurate. "Bloody Hell," and even if it's a curse it doesn't sound mad, it just... he is too surprised to deal with it.

"There are two?!" Trixie, on her side, had made the exclamation sound happy and excited. Both of the adults quickly looked at her; neither of them knowing what to do. "One of them's gotta be a girl,"

"Hold on, how did you not see this before?" Chloe asks the doctor; eyes fixated on the image on the screen. Those two little things could very easily explain the reason why she started showing so early.

"I don't know. They're fraternal so they have different sacs... I guess getting the angle to see them together was a little bit tricky," he explains, looking at how the wand was literally in a one-eighty angle almost.

"Holy shit," she sighs; grip on Lucifer's hand never loosening. They were having _two_ babies. _Two_ celestial babies who had who knows how many powers and abilities. For fuck's sake, they might even come out with wings. How were they ever going to learn how to deal with that? How were they going to keep _two_ half-angel babies safe?

"I'll put the image in 4D so you can see it better," the doctor selected a rectangle where both babies could be seen and suddenly, the image that was black and white turned to a cream-colored version moving slightly slower, clearly showing both gestational sacs with both babies inside of them.

"That is so cool!" Trixie squealed in joy, seemingly the only one who had taken the news nicely. "Why are their heads open, though?" At that, Lucifer pays more attention to the heads of his children. Gosh, it was plural now.

"Those are the bones of their skull. They close by the time they're born," the doctor explains to her, smiling softly and bringing the ultrasound image back to black and white. He moves the wand so only one of the babies is in display and freezes the image, taking its measurements. "Okay, so, this will be baby A, the one that's the closest to the cervix," he draws a line from the top of its head to its bum and measures how long it is to determinate gestational age and such, doing the same to the gestational sac and then unfreezing the image so he could look at its heart. "That flicker you see right there is the heart," he points to the small flicker in the middle of the baby's chest and all Chloe can do is smile.

There were so many things going on inside her mind, most of them having to do with worry and preoccupation, with if they would be able to keep them safe or not, but even with all of that she couldn't help it but be happy. She was two times happier now that she had two little angels to look forward to, not just one. And yes, she knew it would be tough, easily the hardest thing she's ever done, but they were already bringing so much joy to their lives, she already loved them so much.

Lucifer, on the other hand, was... Well, the only word that would describe him accurately was odd. He was oddly calm about all of that, about having two children instead of one, looking at the screen with the images of their baby A, eyes glossy and full of emotion. However, and to Chloe's surprise, he wasn't freaking out, his eyes were showing other kinds of emotions, lots of them, but strangely neither of those were negative. She would even dare to say he was falling in love, having that moment that every parent had the first time they saw their child on the ultrasound screen. She squeezed his hand, bringing his attention to her and he actually gave her the tiniest of smiles, bringing his eyes back to the screen almost immediately.

The moment the doctor played the sound of baby A's heartbeat, though, Lucifer's eyes grew way wider and rounder, filled with all the emotion in the world. He just... he couldn't understand the cocktail of feelings he had accumulated at the pit of his stomach, he felt so overwhelmed but it was weirdly in the best kind of way. He was afraid, he was scared shitless, but he felt so many things blooming inside of him that the fear literally had no place to settle, it had no place to make him feel worried.

"One thirty-seven for this one, measuring fourteen weeks and four days, just a little bit ahead," the doctor says, doing a screenshot of the monitor and moving on into the rest of the examination. He moves the wand so the other baby will be on the screen and repeats the exact same line of measurements of length and heartrate. Of course, it draws out the exact same reaction from the parents, one of complete disbelief but also in the best kind of way.

"It sounds like they're riding a horse in there," Trixie says when the doctor plays the heartbeat of baby B; this one slightly faster than baby A's.

"It kinda does, doesn't it?" Trixie nods, feeling delighted that there would be two babies to play with, to teach. She was thrilled to become a big sister, much more now that she knew she would have double the trouble. "So, baby B is measuring fourteen weeks and three days, the heart rate is one sixty-two," he moves the wand so both babies are back on display, letting their parents see them wiggle their legs and arms and actually kick although Chloe couldn't feel it. "They're both measuring a little bit ahead since your gestational age is fourteen weeks and one day but it's a small difference so we'll let them be,"

"Everything's alright, right?" Chloe asks him, finally tearing her eyes away from her wiggly babies.

"They're looking perfect," he reassures her as the ultrasound imaging catches baby B yawning. "Do you want to know the genders?"

"Isn't it too early?" Chloe asks him, looking up to Lucifer only to find he was already looking down at her. Knowing they would have one half-angel baby was one thing, but two? They really didn't know what they had gotten themselves into, they didn't know what to expect.

"I've already seen baby A's gender as I took its measurements and with how big they are it will be pretty accurate," he explains, already moving the wand so only baby A would be on display once again.

"Can we, mommy? Pretty please," Trixie begs, extending the 'e' of her please and doing her best puppy eyes. She really wanted to know what she was getting, and she would really love to have two sisters to play with. Chloe shares a look of uncertainty with the devil, and after a shrug on his side, she looks back to the doctor.

"Yeah, sure," she agrees; ears hurting at the squeal of joy Trixie let out.

"So, baby A here is a little boy," he gets the wand to focus the image in between the baby's legs, signaling the obvious protrusion in between them. "Let me... there it is, see that little protrusion there?" Chloe smiled, happy that her wish for a little son had been fulfilled. She really wasn't expecting what she got when they first arrived at the hospital. "And baby B..." the doctor moved the wand to the other side of Chloe's stomach, getting baby B alone on the screen. "This one is the sneaky one, let me—," he tried to focus in between the baby's legs, smiling widely once he caught the gender. "Baby B is a little girl, congratulations, guys. Nothing in there, you see?" Trixie looked at Chloe in the eyes and the joy and happiness Chloe found in them were indescribable. Trixie had been saying she wanted a little sister ever since she found out Chloe was pregnant, she was just so happy.

"It's a girl?!" She asked joyfully, looking back at her little sister on the screen.

"Yes, Trixie. Looks like you've got the sister you wanted," the doctor moves the wand so both babies are visible and snaps a picture of them so it could be printed. "I really don't know how we didn't catch this earlier," he pulls the ultrasound wand away and wipes the gel off of it with a paper towel, handing Chloe one of them in the process so she could wipe herself as well and deeming the ultrasound done.

"Well, this explains why I started showing so early," she sits up on the bed once her abdomen is free of the gel, raising up the stretchy band of her black maternity jeans. "Does this change anything? Do I have to take extra precautions now?" She asks, stepping down from the stretcher as Lucifer puts Trixie down and stands up himself, immediately reaching out for her hand.

"This is now a high-risk pregnancy, you'll have to be very careful, especially when you get further along," the doctor says, printing the report and the images to hand them. "Maybe see if you can get started on desk duty a bit earlier, and of course, the likelihood of you making it past thirty-seven weeks significantly decreases, so we want those babies as big and healthy as possible,"

"I understand, I'll talk to my boss," Chloe agrees, taking in her hands the envelope with the pictures of her two bundles of joy. How hard it was to get used to the idea that there were two, not just one.

"Due date is still the same, June fifteenth, but you'll most likely be delivering hopefully in late May," the doctor nods and explains, placing both of her hands on his pocket.

They say their polite goodbyes and then Chloe, Lucifer and Trixie are free to go; the child running through the hallways and the adults holding into the other's hand like a lifeline.

It was just... they were having twins, two kids who would depend on them, who would have needs and most likely powers not of the earthly plane. How were they supposed to deal with that? How were they supposed to keep them safe and healthy? How were they supposed to keep the secret of divinity to themselves if they had two kids that had a chance of being born with wings? All those matters were already clouding their minds when they knew they were having one child, now that they knew they were having two... everything skyrocketed.

And yet, even if all the fear and anxiety surrounding the pregnancy skyrocketed, so did the love and excitement and everything positive they felt about their kids. They knew they would always be afraid, every stage of life came bearing new fears, but they could also learn how to embrace them and how to make the most out of every single one of them. As long as they stayed together and calm, everything would be just fine.

If later that night Lucifer fell asleep on Trixie's bed after reading 'Beauty and the Beast' three times, and singing 'Tale as Old as Time' another four, well... he would never tell.

Yeah, children definitely weren't so bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so... We got Morningstar twinnies!! I just love the idea of making the path towards fatherhood pretty rocky for our Lucifer, so right when he's about to get there, bitch (aka me) says: nope. 
> 
> Hope you liked it and remember to tell me what you think about the new title in the comments! I'll answer a few!!
> 
> All my love, M.


	14. Chapter XIV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so... I started writing this thinking that the whole thing (starting and ending the case on the same chapter) would be about 10k words total, but I started writing and I realized I was wrong. This is 6.2k words and I'm less than halfway there so I've chosen to split it up into two or three parts, we'll see. 
> 
> For your delight, the title "She's got the devil's eyes" is staying!! Y'all seemed to hate the idea of changing the title and I can understand why, we all kind of love it. I promise I'll try to work the genetic meaning of it somewhere in the story. 
> 
> Chapter 15 is coming I don't know when, but don't kill me if it takes me longer than what you're used to. I'm so far behind in Uni and I just have to make more time for it, which means less time for writing. At least, inspiration is never an issue, I'm always inspired to write on this. 
> 
> I love you all so much, keep up the commenting and kudoing, it really motivates me!!
> 
> Stay safe and healthy.
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Chloe was quick to find out that being pregnant with twins was significantly harder than being pregnant with just one baby.

Around halfway through week seventeen you could say she had 'popped'. She had woken up one day and her belly was just all out, far bigger and more noticeable, taking up a greater amount of space on her abdomen. It wasn't the first time it happened to her, back when she was pregnant with Trixie she popped out overnight, too, only that it had happened when she was almost seven months along. Now, however, she was barely past four and a half months pregnant and already looked as if she were further along; round belly sticking out like a sore thumb.

Later on that week she started experiencing the aches and pains associated with pregnancy, round ligament pain to be precise, which with Trixie had happened as late as three weeks before giving birth. She was growing two large babies inside her womb, it was logical that the rapid growth and the stretch, now multiplied by two, would put her body to the test. It also had to do with the fact that she was carrying them pretty low, so the ligaments on her hips already had a respectable amount of weight on them. However, she could only be thankful that the pain would bother her only if she had been on her feet for too long, and it would only come around evening, which meant she could work just fine.

Regarding the fact that they had gone to the doctor's appointment expecting something completely different from what they got, well... needless to say, they allowed themselves a little session of freaking out after Lucifer put Trixie to bed. They just really weren't expecting one large baby to turn into two large babies, and even if they weren't mad about it being twins, it still was a huge surprise. Later on, when the fact that there really were two babies growing inside Chloe's stomach sunk in, they started questioning themselves. They were already walking down an unknown path knowing that their child was different from the other half-angel baby that existed, now that they knew they had two on the way... There were just so many questions. Was it both of them that had powers or only one? Would both of them be born with wings? Would Chloe be able to pull through the whole pregnancy with two divine beings? What if her body gave out?

Lucifer had had it harder than Chloe when coming to terms with the fact that they were having twins. He just felt so scared, so not sure of himself. Chloe could feel how much he doubted himself, how much he feared the situation he was in. Whether he liked children or not was a problem that was out of the equation by then; his issues mostly consisted of him not feeling enough and fearing that it would all be just too much. Not on him, per se, he wasn't afraid for his own integrity or anything, he was scared that he might lose Chloe, that everything would just be too much for her body to handle. How could he ever be expected to love someone who had taken the one he loved the most from him?

It could be said that all of Lucifer's anxiety was mainly about the future, about what would happen and what all the possible outcomes were. After having his session with Linda he became surer in his stance, and ever since then, he was trying to take one step at a time. The reality for them then, as of eighteen and a half weeks of gestation, was that everything was alright with both Chloe and the babies and that everything was looking good. He could start worrying when the time came and Chloe was just so proud of him. He was trying his hardest and overcoming fears and things that had been with him for eons, all for her and their little ones' sake; she truly couldn't be more in love with him.

When it came to working together, well... they were still the partnership with the highest closure rates of all the homicide division of the LAPD, which was something they could still brag about. Luckily, being in a romantic relationship and expecting children together hadn't interfered with how they worked and the professionalism they put to their work. Well, professionalism in Chloe's side, Lucifer was still every bit the same completely out of place, probably too unethical civilian consultant he had always been and Chloe was so glad about that.

Ever since her belly had popped out, she noticed that she had been stared at far more often during work hours. On the first week, no one had dared to say anything to either her or Lucifer, probably too afraid for their lives to even ask. It was that day in particular when, upon arrival, she had been greeted with the first direct comment about her pregnancy.

"Hi, Samantha," she politely greeted the woman at the front desk while she put her thumb on the print reader so it could mark the time she had gotten to work.

"Hello, Decker," the woman had stayed in silence, clearly looking at her. She was wearing a black, knit pullover along with her light wash maternity jeans. She wasn't trying to hide her pregnancy anymore, it was just too energy-consuming. "I hear congratulations are in order," she said; eyes fixated on Chloe's stomach.

"Pardon me?" However, even if she wasn't purposefully trying to hide it, she still wasn't expecting it when it happened.

"You know... about the baby," she looked at Samantha as if she had grown a third eye, and briefly forgetting she was the one pregnant. She then gave her an awkward smile, looking at her own belly to try and determine if it was too visible.

"Oh, yeah, thanks," she said awkwardly, wanting the print reader to finally take her print so she could leave and do her job. Samantha was one of the nicest people in the precinct, but she was just as nice as she was noisy.

"You know what you're having?" She asked next, not realizing that her questioning was making Chloe feel uncomfortable.

"We do, yeah," she says, sighing out of relief when the reader finally lit up in green. She wasn't going to tell Samantha the gender of her babies but then she looked at her with big, expectant eyes and she just couldn't not tell her. "A girl and a boy,"

"Oh, twins?" She said surprised, lowering her eyes back to her belly. Chloe nodded softly, already wanting to go to her desk and focus on her work. "Well, double the congratulations, then,"

"Thank you," she said briefly before smiling for one last time and leaving to her desk with the knowledge that now everyone would just know about it. She had hoped they would have a little bit more of the winter to conceal it but it seemed that mid-January was all they got.

She quickly made her way towards her desk, wishing she could have a cup of coffee to wake herself up and thankful for the fact that she hadn't started waddling just yet, that would be just on the verge of too telling. She knew she would eventually start waddling, right around the time when the weight on the stomach gets to too much, but she was thankful that she hadn't started.

When she finally made it to her desk, she found the devil sitting on her chair and staring off into space. Last night had been one of the very few they slept apart; Lucifer had gone to sleep to the penthouse when he remembered it was Taco Tuesday for the spawn and her parents, so he just let them have that time together. Chloe had offered him to stay but he politely refused, saying that it was Trixie's chance to have her parents to herself and that he shouldn't intervene.

"You're early," she said upon meeting the devil, pulling him out of his trance. She leaned over her desk and planted a chaste kiss on his awaiting lips, pulling away quickly enough. She wasn't a fan of PDAs at work. "You're never early,"

"Well, it seems like I've grown used to sleeping beside you, and since last night I couldn't I just stayed awake. Figured, why not make it to work on time for a change?" He says, standing up and offering the chair to Chloe.

"So you just didn't sleep?" She questions, lowering her purse to the floor.

"Relax, darling. I'm the devil, I don't really have to sleep," he states, grabbing himself a chair and sitting right beside his loved one.

"You could have stayed last night, would've been fun,"

"I didn't want to spoil the spawn's one on one time with her parents," he argues.

"You wouldn't have. She actually asked for you," she places her small hand on his thigh, lovingly squeezing it.

"She did, now did she?" He was growing so fond of Trixie, she was literally crawling her way into his heart. She was just so sweet and so not afraid of him, it was wonderful, really.

"She wanted you to sing for her. I tried my best but having one and a half pounds of baby in my stomach didn't help that much," he smiled, thinking of the spawn he had grown so close to.

"Everything okay with spawns two and three?" He asked her then, directly voicing his concern towards the babies. Although he was doing it more often, she just couldn't get used to having him so aware.

"Everything perfect," she placed her hand on her stomach, giving it a quick pat. "Actually, it looks like there's no reason to try and keep hiding this anymore,"

"Why would you say so?" He wonders.

"Samantha at the front desk just congratulated me. She asked if I knew what we were having and she just looked at me with her big brown eyes and I couldn't not tell her," Lucifer smiled at that, imagining Chloe in that situation.

"Congratulations, dear, you're officially pregnant," he teases her, smiling smugly. It didn't matter to him who knew and who didn't, he couldn't bring himself to care about something so small and insignificant, but he could understand and respect that it was important to Chloe. "Muffin, we knew the day would come,"

"I know but it's just... I was expecting it to happen I don't know, in February maybe?" She goes as far as to pout slightly, drawing a smile out of Lucifer.

"Decker," she hears Olivia Monroe's voice as the Lieutenant approaches her desk, interrupting her conversation with her favorite devil.

Ever since Lucifer killed Pierce, Lieutenant Monroe had been transferred back to the LAPD, for everyone's delight. She had worked with them for a really long time and everyone knew how she wanted things, so there wasn't really any period of adaptation, which meant the old dynamics came back pretty smoothly.

"Lieutenant, good morning," she smiles tightly at Chloe, placing a case file on her desk.

"New case just dropped in, I've already sent a team and Lopez over there. It's yours," she briefly glances over at Lucifer and smiles at him a little more animated, probably under the spell he seemed to have over women. Over time, Chloe had learned to ignore it, and since it was her boss the one under it that time, she wouldn't even dare to make a comment.

"Thank you, any details?" She stands up, clearly understanding that they had to go over to the crime scene.

"Paul Sinclair, twenty-eight years old. COD is unknown, you'll have to see for yourselves," she taps her pointer finger on the case file, looking back at her with stern eyes.

"On our way to the crime scene, then," Olivia smiles tightly at them and then leaves, deeming their conversation over. She was a really stern and professional woman, and it was pretty understandable that being a woman in a man's world had shaped her to be that way. Chloe couldn't complain though, she was an excellent lieutenant.

"After you, darling," Lucifer allowed Chloe to step out of the confinement of her desk space, standing close by.

"Thank you," She grabbed the case file and her purse and after sharing a small look with Lucifer, they made their way towards the parking lot. "You know, I'm really mad that I can't drink coffee, I would kill for one right now,"

"Then why don't you have one? Given the spawns' nature, I think coffee can hardly harm them," Lucifer suggests, placing his hand on the small of Chloe's back as they walk towards the exit of the precinct.

"I'm not taking any chances, I really don't want to harm them," Chloe reasons, walking past Samantha once again. She smiles knowingly at them and she gives her a small nod before stepping into the sixty-six degrees of Los Angeles' winter. She didn't know if she loved or hated the fact that winter was so not winter in LA.

"For what it's worth, I think you could smoke and get wasted on the daily and they would still be just fine. They might be immortal after all," he reminds her.

"They might, we don't know that yet, we won't know until after they're born," Chloe argues, getting into the driver's seat of her grey cruiser and throwing her purse to the backseat.

"Guess you have a point there. Still, given all we already know they can do..." Lucifer sits down on the passenger seat like always, doing it almost without thinking. They were so in tune with each other, completely used to the routine they had had over the last two years.

"We don't know if it's one of them or both, Lucifer. I'm not going to be drinking coffee, even if I'm dying to," she puts an end to the conversation with a small smile, turning on the engine of the car and driving off into the highway.

Lucifer lifts up his hands in defeat and they spend the rest of the ride to the crime scene in a comfortable silence; Lucifer eventually placing his big hand on Chloe's thigh. The crime scene was about twenty minutes away from the precinct, but given the fact that it was quarter past nine in the morning, you could say traffic wasn't the best.

They arrived at the scene in question a little bit past quarter to ten; a decently sized house located in a nice enough neighborhood made both Chloe and Lucifer think the victim could get by just fine. The perimeter had already been closed and the officers keeping outsiders at bay quickly lifted the yellow tape to let Chloe and her partner through, allowing them into the crime scene. There were far too many people trying to look inside the house and find out what happened that made Chloe think the victim was probably someone well known, at least to the neighborhood. She made a beeline for the forensics table to grab a pair of gloves,— an initiative she knew Lucifer wouldn't follow— and assessed the situation, looking at her surroundings. Nothing looked to be out of place, at least not in the big front lawn the not so modest house possessed.

Upon entering the house, amidst all the chaos and the number of people coming in and out, Chloe could already tell the victim knew his murderer, judging by the fact that there were two scotch glasses poured on the coffee table and that nothing was out of place. Maybe it had been a crime of passion but they would know more after speaking to Ella.

"Hey, Ella, what have you got?" He approaches her friend, who is cautiously taking pictures of the victim.

The victim himself, well... it was a one of a kind crime scene, to say the least.

He was laid on top of a professional bicycle, dressed with the clothing of a cyclist and surrounded by dozens of pictures of him competitively riding all across the world. Chloe could tell that almost all of them were from past editions of the Tour de France, picturing him focused and in action. Besides the pictures, though, were dozens of syringes and needles and white powders laying around, which was probably the killer trying to make a statement. Everyone knew doping was a serious issue in competitions like the Tour de France, but most cases almost always went unnoticed.

"Decker, hi!" Ella stood up, quickly walking towards Chloe and hugging her. Ever since she found out about her pregnancy she had been especially touchy with her, hugging her whenever it was possible. No one could blame her, though, she was just really excited about the twins; she couldn't believe it when they told her. "How are my little godchildren?" She tried to touch Chloe's stomach but she stepped backward, not wanting to draw much attention to it.

"For the last time, miss Lopez, we're not going to baptize the spawns," Lucifer said, slightly faking annoyance. Truth to be told, he and his siblings thought that the catholic church was a joke and it was filled with corrupt people but hey, it was miss Lopez's faith.

"Let me be, okay?" She playfully bumps her fist on his left shoulder. "Why do you keep calling them 'spawns'? I know with all your method actin—"

"—Ella, the victim?" Chloe interrupts her, not wanting to draw more attention than necessary to herself or her pregnancy.

"Oh yeah, sorry," she looks up at Lucifer with narrow eyes. "Paul Sinclair, twenty-eight years old, competitive cyclist," she turns her body towards the victim, explaining her findings. "Cause of death is unknown but I found traces of chloroform around his mouth and nose and a bruise on his elbow from a very recent injection. He is lightly cyanotic but I don't think choking was it since there's no sign of struggle whatsoever and no marks on his body other than the little injection bruise,"

"This reminds me of that case we had of a man killing people for being frauds and exposing them," Lucifer comments, taking a look at the victim and the whole scenario surrounding him. "You know, the one where Reese Getty tried to get me killed with that same MO,"

"Yeah, it could be but as far as I know, cyclists don't claim to do or not do drugs. They're pretty secretive about it and if the killer was trying to make a statement they would have to kill all cyclists in LA," Chloe comments, looking at the whole scene laid out.

"Yeah, that kind of makes sense," Ella adds.

"Besides, the victim knew the killer. No forced entry, two glasses of scotch on the coffee table, no sign of struggle... do we know the time of death?" Chloe looked around, already knowing the case would be a tough one.

"Sometime between nine to eleven pm last night, based on lividity and _rigor mortis_ ; he's completely stiff," Ella clarifies.

"Anything else from the rest of the scene? Any findings, DNA?" The detective asks, standing right beside her civilian consultant and hoping for some more leads.

"Sadly, no. This guy is squeaky clean. We got DNA from one of the scotch glasses but it's probably this guy's, the other one was untouched. No footprints, no fingerprints, _nada_ ," Chloe scowled, not liking the direction the case was taking. A killer being that clean could only mean two things: either they had killed before and knew how to avoid getting caught or they were squeaky clean because they wanted to kill again, and neither of those was good.

"So we got nothing?" She says, shifting her weight onto her right leg.

"More or less. The team hasn't finished the first sweep yet but I'll have them do two just to be sure. I guess we'll know more after the autopsy, without COD I'm afraid we don't have much,"

"Any witnesses? Who found the body?"

"His ex-wife. She came in looking for him when he didn't turn up to take his son to school. I think she's still outside," Ella explains, smiling softly.

"Thanks, Ella," Chloe thanks her friend, sighing and having a gut feeling that things wouldn't just end there. Someone taking so much effort into not leaving any clues, and putting up the scene they had could only mean they were after more people as well, and that was _no_ _bueno_. It was cold, premeditated murder, first grade.

They stay in the crime scene for two hours after their arrival, helping the team look for any leads and just supervising the investigation. Ella ends up bagging the body and letting the CSI team take it so they could do the autopsy and get them the report; Chloe had asked for them to make it top priority since her gut feeling was only getting worse and worse.

She talked to the victim's ex-wife, a woman named Clarissa Wainwright, asking her about what she knew of the victim. They had gotten married when they were eighteen and were teenage parents to their ten-year-old son, Rudy, but got a divorce after a three-year-long marriage. She had remarried and her relationship with Paul, the victim, was strictly about their son. She was pretty shaken up about finding him dead in such circumstances, but within all the crying Chloe managed to get her whereabouts at the time of the murder; she had been out dining with her husband, an alibi that could be checked with the restaurant security cameras. She also found he had no immediate family, both of his parents had died and he didn't have any siblings. He hadn't remarried as Clarissa had so there weren't many people to talk to.

She went around the neighborhood, talking to any possible witnesses that might have seen something but they all said they saw nothing. Paul was known for being quite calm and kept to himself, not many people knew much about him and no one had heard or seen anything during the time of death. They really had nothing, no way to approach the case whatsoever.

Eventually, after talking to at least ten people, Chloe went back to the house and sat down on a chair. Everything had been processed already, so they didn't have to worry about messing with any possible evidence. She already felt so tired and it was only noon.

"We really have nothing," she commented, looking up at Lucifer who was standing right in front of her. "I have a bad feeling about this,"

"How so?" He asks, sitting beside her on the loveseat.

"I don't know, I just... no one is this clean if it's their first kill. I just have a feeling that later today, maybe tomorrow morning there'll be another body," she places one of her hands on the top of her stomach, already starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Chloe, are you okay?" He asks, noticing Chloe's change in behavior.

"Yeah, just... a little fatigued, that's all," she sighs, letting the hand on her stomach fall to Lucifer's thigh to give it a squeeze and reassure him that she was fine. "I think it'll be best if we head back to the precinct and start looking into this guy, check if everything Clarissa said is true. We probably can't do more until we get the autopsy report,"

"That is wise thinking there. Are you sure you're okay?" He insists, looking up at Chloe as she stands up.

"Sure, it's just fatigue, it's normal. I'll go ask Ella if she needs a ride back," after she sees Lucifer nod she heads back into the living room, finding Ella giving directions and taking photos.

Ella tells her the team has to sweep the scene once more and that she needed to give directions, so she would stay there until they were finished with that. With any luck, she might find something to let them start on with the investigation but as of then, _zilch_.

With that, they head back to the precinct, using the ride to try and find a suitable approach for the case, discussing possibilities. If it was actually a serial killer, they would have to find out what the MO was and how they chose their victims, but if Chloe's guesses were correct, all they could do was wait and see if another victim was found. So that's what they spend their twenty-minute trip back to the precinct on.

"I've learned to always trust your gut, detective," Lucifer says just as Chloe finishes all her ranting about the case. They needed substance, something to get their grip on so they could start looking. They were never that clueless regarding cases.

"I hate that all we can do right now is wait," Chloe complains, bringing the car to a stop at a red light.

"I know you do. Once we get the autopsy report we'll be better off," Lucifer places his hand on her thigh, squeezing lightly to help her relax. She was visibly tense and judging by the little knowledge he had about human gestation, that wasn't good for the offspring.

She drove the car into the precinct's parking lot, already making her way towards her designated parking space. She then parked her grey cruiser, taking the key off the ignition and placing her forehead against the steering wheel, flooded with frustration.

"It's just... it's so frustrating when—" she suddenly cuts herself off, making Lucifer think she came upon a moment of realization. It was pretty difficult, given the lack of evidence they had, but he sat still and waited for her to continue.

Only that she didn't. She sat up straighter on the driver's seat, reaching out for the seatbelt lock to free herself from it; a smile growing slowly across her face. She looked to her right to find the devil, looking at him with wide blue eyes.

"Lucifer, I think one of the babies just kicked," she says, completely taken aback. Her stomach had been feeling kind of weird those last couple of days but she just disregarded it as gas or something of the sort, they had been like small flutters, like when your stomach rumbles and you can feel it rather than hear it. However, what she had just felt had clearly been a kick, up top on her stomach. She remembered what the first kicks felt like when she was expecting Trixie and they could be easily compared.

"They kicked you? Why would they kick you? Is it... are they being purposefully mean or something?" He asks, completely unaware that the babies moving inside the womb was something completely normal.

"It's normal, they start to move and when they get big enough you start to feel it," she explains, placing a hand on the top of her stomach and rubbing it lovingly, right over the place she thought she felt the kick.

"Yes, but why would they _kick_?" He asks, still not understanding.

"They don't do it on purpose, relax," she lifts up her pullover and the tee-shirt she had underneath it, feeling her stomach just over the stretchy band of her maternity jeans. "Give me your hand,"

"What do you want my hand for?" He asks, hesitating about reaching out.

"Come on, give me your hand," she doesn't wait for him to reach, she just grabs his left hand and places it on top of her stomach, right around the place she last felt the kick.

"What are you doing?" He wonders, looking at her as if she had grown a third eye. He was immediately able to hear the heartbeat of the baby on top, the girl. He had found out that he would hear the heartbeat of the baby that was the nearest to his palm, thing that had been proven by him placing his hand on different parts of Chloe's stomach and hearing two different heartbeats with different velocities. The girl almost always had a faster heartbeat than the boy, they had come to learn, and since they knew she was on top of the boy it was easy to figure out who was who.

"Shhh, can you feel anything?" She presses his hand slightly harder on her stomach, hoping he could feel the next kick. "I don't think you will, it was so light—" right at that moment, their little girl chooses to kick again, barely bumping against Lucifer's hand. "There, did you feel that?" When she lifts up her gaze to look at Lucifer's face, she finds him making a face of disgust. "Hey, what...?" He quickly pulls his hand away.

"That has to be the weirdest thing I've ever felt in my entire life," he says, bringing his hand back to his realm with his eyes wide. He was debating with himself about whether he felt grossed out or just surprised.

"Are you really freaking out right now?" She asks, actually smiling instead of feeling bad that he didn't like the feeling. It could be kind of weird to feel a baby kick from the outside, she couldn't blame him. That reaction had been so alike him.

"I'm not freaking out," he argues, trying to relax.

"Lucifer, it's okay. It can be kind of weird feeling a baby kick," She smiled, still feeling the tiny flutters go inside her stomach. It was mainly up top, which made her think it was the girl the one moving, but she could feel significantly lighter movements below her belly button, too. "Give me your hand, come on. I think both of them are moving,"

Lucifer looked at Chloe with an unsure expression plastered across his face. He had his hand on her stomach for a really brief moment and the little flutter he got to feel had been really quick and really light. He could only say it felt weird, as if her belly had lightly pushed against his palm, and even if he wasn't too on board with it, he was willing to let himself feel it again. With that in mind, he turned his torso towards Chloe and reached to touch her stomach with his right hand, placing it where he had last felt the kick and covering half of Chloe's belly. She quickly placed her own hand on top of his, pressing lightly against the swell of her stomach.

"There, you felt that?" She asked a couple of seconds later, feeling one of the babies kick again.

Lucifer's face was torn between incredibly disgusted and incredibly amazed. He never knew spawns would move while inside the womb, and feeling it for the first time with the spawns he was warming up to had been kind of a moment of realization. It had been a light tap against the palm of his hand but it still meant so much.

"I..." he struggled. "It really is weird," the light taps against his hand and the steady sound of a heartbeat at the back of his head were overwhelming him, making him feel a ton of different emotions but the highlight of them all was fear.

He was slowly but surely falling in love with the idea of the spawns. Knowing their genders, having seen them on the ultrasound, knowing they had powers and hearing their heartbeats was bringing him closer to them, closer to the idea that sometime next May they would arrive on earth and depend on him and Chloe. He really didn't want to fail, he didn't want to have them go through what he had gone through when he was young but more than that, he wanted to love them and not feel afraid of hurting them, of the possibility of him being just like his father had been.

"You okay?" Chloe asks, softly stroking Lucifer's knuckles. She could tell he was torn between something, she could practically hear him overthinking.

"I..." his first instinct had been to say yes and avoid the subject, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so. Not when it meant lying and much less when it was to Chloe. "No, no I'm not,"

"What is it?" She asks him softly, tracing the lines and edges of the back of his hand with her fingers and hoping he would feel better.

"It's just..." he sighs, bringing back his focus to his hand. The movements were so light that Chloe doubted Lucifer could feel even half of them, but every now and then one of the babies would kick hard enough for him to feel it and therefore render him speechless. "I don't want them to go through what I went through. I don't want them to think of me as the shittiest parent to ever exist," he confesses, looking down to his lap but not moving an inch from where he was.

"Why would you think that?" Chloe is genuinely taken aback by the lack of self-trust Lucifer was showing. It wasn't like him at all.

"I'm scared, Chloe. I don't know how to do this, I... I don't know how to be a dad, I never thought I would ever _be_ a dad. What if I let them down, what if..." he shuts himself up, but Chloe is quick and smart enough to understand him and make out what he wanted to say.

"What if you end up being like _your_ dad?" He looks up at her eyes; dark orbs filled with emotion as they find her smiling sympathetically at him. "It's easy, Lucifer. You won't,"

"How can you be so sure?" He asks her in complete disbelief; all the self-trust he was lacking was being replenished by hers. "Why do you trust me so much?"

"Why do _I_ trust you so much?" Chloe said, letting the disbelief be shown in her voice. She couldn't believe the devil, she really couldn't. "I trust you because you've always been there for me, you always put me first. I trust you because I love you, because I see how hard this is for you and how you still choose to stay, to try. You are trying so hard to not be like your dad and just because of that I know you won't end up like him. You're trying to be different, he wasn't," His eyes were drowning in emotion as Chloe spoke to him, her words felt like a balm to his broken and scared soul, soft and soothing. "And, Lucifer just... seeing how you act around Trixie and how your relationship is evolving... how can you doubt yourself so much when you have that?"

"It's different, I... I'm not the spawn's father, she has Daniel," Lucifer says, letting a sigh escape the confinement of his lips as he spoke. He really wanted to be good, he had come to learn after months of letting Trixie in that children deserved someone who could raise them well and allow them to become as nice as she was, the best version of themselves they could ever be. What if he couldn't do that with his own children? What if he took away their possibility of becoming a nice, respectable man and woman respectively from them?

"Yes, that's true. Trixie is mine and Dan's, and yet I know that if she ever needed you you'd be there for her in a heartbeat. She can count on you just as much as she can count on me or Dan, and you wouldn't have that kind of relationship and trust if you were anything like your father," Chloe brings her other hand to rest on top of Lucifer's, trying to make him feel sure and contained. She hated that he thought about himself in such a way, he was nothing like his father. "You're not alone, baby, we'te together. Terrified, with lots of anxiety, expecting _two_ kids that can do who knows what, but we're together. We'll be just fine," he looks up at her, unable to believe his reality. How could someone like him end up with someone like her?

"You think so?" He searches for the reassurance, mixing a gasp and a smile the moment he feels another little tap to the palm of his hand.

"Yeah. We might have to baby proof the ceiling and wrap the whole house in bubble wrap like Linda did but we'll be just fine," she smiles at him as if he had hung up all the stars in the sky —which he had, only that Chloe still didn't know about all that—. "Let's just take one step at a time, baby steps,"

And with that, Chloe ended their conversation. The truth was: they were both terrified about the future, about everything having to do with their children. Each had their own worries; Chloe worried about the children's supernatural abilities and how they would keep the secret of divinity from the world. Lucifer worried about whether he would be enough for them as a father or not. And even if the problems seemed to be insurmountable, as long as they had each other, they would be just fine.

With all that in mind, they stepped out of the car, walking inside the precinct and completely ready to tackle their new case.


	15. Chapter XV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, got a whole lot to say so this note is going to be long.
> 
> First of all, sorry for the delay guys! Right after uploading last chapter I burnt my left hand with boiling water and since I write in my phone, well... it's been pretty difficult.
> 
> Okay, so, I've officially "americanized" this whole fic. I've always written using UK English expressions and such and since this is based on a US' series, well, it seemed right. 
> 
> I have a new idea for a deckerstar fic and I'm so excited about it! Not gonna say much but it's inspired from a quote from Federico García Lorca that says: "To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves". I'm so excited I can't stand myself!
> 
> Guys, I know it's been a while since I last thanked you for your support, but the truth is I just wasn't checking the hits and kudo counts. The other day I looked at them and WTF, we are over 8.3k hits and almost 500 kudos, that's insane!! Thank you so much, I can't believe you really like this! Keep it up 'cause it really motivates me!!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and being the sweet, beautiful souls you are. As always, stay safe and wash your hands!
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> P.S. A gas embolism is when any gas forms a bubble inside a blood vessel and it's really dangerous. It can obstruct blood flow to either the heart or the brain and do serious damage.

Just as Chloe suspected, there had been another murder. They had been working on the cyclist when the lieutenant came to her desk and gave her another case file; another victim that had been laid on the floor surrounded by proof of their wrongdoings.

Their afternoon was spent doing a background search on Paul Sinclair, all his bank information, his phone records, everything that could draw out a possible suspect but so far there had been nothing. His email inbox was filled by messages from possible sponsors and the only mail that stood out had been one for his ten-year high school reunion that was supposed to happen the night he died. He obviously didn't get to go there, so they were back to the beginning.

The autopsy report came quickly, arriving at Chloe's desk at about four in the afternoon. His cause of death had been pretty rare, unique, to say the least. He had died of an air embolism large enough to tamponade major blood vessels and cause a heart attack. There was no way an air embolism of such size could be caused by a natural cause, and even if it were, it would mean the victim had had a big vein or artery completely exposed to the air, and no recent major injuries had been listed on the report. Ella's conclusion at that was that the MO had been purposefully injecting air into the bloodstream, causing a rather slow and painful death.

"This guy had such an awful death!" She had exclaimed, showing them the pictures of the injection spot to reinforce what she was saying. "First, the embolism starts causing anxiety and tremors, then, slowly, their upper and lower extremities start to become paralyzed by the lack of oxygen and they get cyanotic, and lately, when the embolism reaches the heart or brain, boom, death," she brought her hands up to her head to simulate a bomb exploding there, bringing emphasis to her point.

"Thank you, Miss Lopez, for such a... graphic description of this chap's death," Lucifer had said, visibly uncomfortable and shifting the weight between his legs as he stood right next to Chloe.

"Normally, embolisms in arteries are way more dangerous than in veins, and the killer used a vein to pump the air, which means they had to inject at least fifty milliliters of gas," Ella had seemed oddly excited about the case. Sue her, but causes of death were almost always stab or bullet wounds, if killers were feeling a little bit excited maybe poison. That cause of death and therefore that case were a one of a kind.

Once the information had settled in, they started to look for any kind of contact with a healthcare worker or physician, given the fact that to get the supplies needed for that kind of procedure you had to work in healthcare. You just couldn't buy an IV kit at CVS or any kind of drugstore really. If Paul had recently gone to the doctor or had any medical procedure done, they had a place to start.

Far too soon they were hit with the fact that Paul's last contact with any healthcare physician had been over four months ago and it had been a physiotherapist because he had an injury in his right knee. Just like that, their hopes were crushed and they were forced to back to the very beginning. It wasn't as if they had gotten too far though, which made the fall hurt a little bit less.

However, when their second case dropped in, they had a little more information to work with. The first thing they did was look out for any injection bruises and try to get the autopsy report as soon as possible, but given the fact that they arrived at the crime scene in the evening, the report was most likely to be done by morning. The victim, a woman named Hannah Lacroix, had been found dressed in lingerie, with her wedding and engagement rings on, with a crucifix around her neck and surrounded by pictures of her cheating on her husband. They didn't need much more than that to realize that the killer was trying to make a statement with his kills, he wasn't only killing by pleasure.

They drove themselves to the crime scene as soon as they could, arriving at dawn. It was an exuberant family home in suburbia, surrounded by a white fence and it probably had a pool at the back. Based on the stressed man standing at the porch and the number of backyard toys scattered around, Chloe could draw to the conclusion that the home probably housed a large family; at least two children.

"Ella, what have you got?" Chloe asks her as she approaches the forensics scientist; the devil walking at her same pace beside her. The crime scene was once again situated in the middle of the living room, and it was pretty gruesome.

"Hi guys," she greets them, ceasing taking photos. "Pretty ugly, huh?" She gave the woman laying on the floor a pitiful glance.

"Indeed," Lucifer says, actually allowing himself to feel disturbed. That woman was so exposed, both literally and figuratively, that it made everyone feel uncomfortable. "Give us the deets,"

"Okay, so, on a first glance you'd say this crime scene is just like the one in the morning, but man, you'll be glad to know what I got for you," Ella crouches down near the victim, reaching out to grab her left hand. The bruise on her pale skin was visible from a mile away; awfully purple and angry, but the difference this time resided on the fact that the line inserted was still attached to the victim's forearm.

"So the killer went all stabby stab with a needle again?" Chloe winces slightly midsentence; her body telling her it would be a prime time to go home and rest.

"Yes, but this time he punctured an artery," Ella grabbed the transparent line attached to the catheter; the line had blood up until the stopper. "This blood is bright red, full of oxygen,"

"Why bother leaving evidence behind?" Chloe wonders, considering for a moment getting down to eye level with Ella but quickly deciding against it. Her hips were starting to bother her.

"Maybe he wanted us to find it, you can never trust the mind of a serial killer," Lucifer is quick to put on a semblance of worry when hearing the wince in Chloe's voice.

"Yeah... it could have been that but I have another theory," Ella addresses, leaving the victim's arm carefully on its place and standing right up. "This killer works in healthcare, he knows his deal and besides, kits for arterial lines are even more difficult to get a hold of than IV's. I think he knew he wouldn't have too much time so he tried to kill her as quickly as possible,"

"Yeah, but why bother with an arterial line if an IV would be just as effective?" Chloe asks, briefly looking at the victim.

"She would have died either way but an arterial embolism kills quicker than a venous one. Maybe he just wanted to take his time with... all of this, so he made the actual death quick," she points at the scene the murderer made; all the pictures surrounding her were either of her with some random man or of her at church and devoting herself to God. Now that she thought about it, the house had several religious items around.

"That is a good theory, Miss Lopez. I guess setting all of this up can take quite some time," Lucifer adds, gesticulating towards the body and its surroundings. "I still don't get why the killer didn't take off the line, though,"

"It's an arterial line. If the killer had taken the line out, that little puncture wound would have been oozing blood, she could have easily died of a hemorrhage,"

"And it would have messed up his masterpiece," Chloe adds, now understanding why he might have chosen to leave the line in. "Is there any way we can track that line to the hospital or facility it came from?"

"Any kind of hospital equipment can be traced back to the manufacturer through a serial number stamped on it. If we find out who manufactured these we can... I mean, _you_ can interrogate them and find out which hospital bought them,"

"That would narrow things up a lot, thanks, Ella. Anything else?" She places one hand on her lower back, shifting the weight from one leg to another.

"Yeah, and it's pretty good, too. This woman shows signs of restraint as if she had fought him, and check this, there are no traces of chloroform around her mouth like Paul had. There are rope marks on her wrists and ankles and signs of her being gagged," Ella crouched down beside the body to prove her point, signaling at her ankles and her right wrist.

"So she wasn't sedated, this looks so messy compared to our other crime scene," Chloe takes a look at the living room as well, finding that, oddly, nothing was out of place. It was as if she knew her attacker, as if she had let him inside her home. "Do we know the time of death? Maybe she's his first victim,"

"About two hours ago, based on lividity. It's really fresh," Ella sighs, standing up once again. "I found traces of blood underneath her fingernails, I already sent them to get tested. Maybe I'll run them through AFIS or another database and it will draw someone out,"

"Let's hope it does so no one else gets killed. Thanks, Ella,"

"You know, what I don't understand is this guy's criteria when choosing his victims. First, a cyclist blamed for doping and then a horny, cheating housewife? They are at different ends of the scale, really," Lucifer says just as Dan walks up to them, holding a couple of sheets.

"You're right," Chloe looks up at him. "The criteria he uses to choose his victims has to be pretty specific, like that guy you said, the one that killed frauds and exposed them," she sees Dan approach and she immediately moves towards Lucifer to let him some space, turning her body towards him. "You've got anything from the people outside? Who found her?"

"Her husband did. Clark Lacroix, a lawyer working at a private firm, he was coming home from work and found her like this. I've already checked his alibi, he was at his office at the time of death," Dan explains, looking down at Mrs. Lacroix once again. It was awfully unsettling. "They have three children; the two younger ones are on a camping trip with their school and their eldest is at a friend's house. He's only seven, he's staying the night there,"

"Did he know about the cheating?" Chloe wonders.

"He did. He said it's been going on for years now, but he doesn't care, that they were together for appearances only," Dan sighs, slightly frustrated about it all.

"Kind of weird, judging by that, I mean," Lucifer says as he points to one of the crucifixes hanging from the wall and the Bible resting on the coffee table. "You'll find that my father values marriage very much,"

"Maybe they went to church to feel better about themselves," Ella suggests, picking up on the fact that they were talking about the spirituality of the victim and her family. "To alleviate the guilt,"

"I'm afraid Heaven's doors are closed if you feel guilty about something," Lucifer adds, making the kind of comment everyone was used to. They had learned not to pay attention to those over the years and now the only one who did —and not always, only when it was relevant,— was Chloe.

"How can Hannah Lacroix and Paul Sinclair be related? They have to have something in common that made our killer pick them," Dan wonders, briefly closing his eyes to try and think. Cases where the killer was serial were always the toughest because they had to be solved fast, they wanted to avoid people getting killed.

"Those are boogie last names, maybe Paul had something to do with the law firm Mr. Lacroix works at?" Ella says, trying to look for a connection between the victims that would give them a rough list of people that would need protection.

"We checked all his emails and none of them trace back to the firm," says Dan.

"Did you ask Mr. Lacroix if he knew Paul Sinclair?" Chloe says, finally beginning to see a connection. If Clark knew Paul it would mean that maybe Hannah did, too, and therefore the killer could be targeting friend groups.

"No, I didn't,"

Chloe takes that as her queue to walk towards the main door of the house, looking for Hannah's husband with Lucifer right behind her. She had a hunch, and whenever that happened, be it good or bad, it almost always turned put to be true. The hypothesis of the killer targeting friend groups was the closest thing to a lead they had at the moment.

"Hello, Clark Lacroix? Detective Chloe Decker, LAPD," she introduces herself to the blonde man sitting down on the porch swing and crying his eyes out. Truth to be told, it wasn't too hard to realize it was him. "This is my partner, Lucifer Morningstar," he looks up when she introduces Lucifer, immediately frowning at the devil.

"As in the nightclub owner who grants people favors?" He asks, looking up into his eyes.

"In the flesh," is all Lucifer says, letting Chloe handle the situation. Over time, they had learned that when there wasn't an immediate threat, or when they didn't need to draw out people's most forbidden desires, it was best to let Chloe do all the talking.

"Mr. Lacroix, I have a couple of questions I need to ask you," she smiles sympathetically at him. Even if he knew she was having multiple affairs and the marriage itself was broken, he still cared about her, she was the mother of his three boys.

"I've already talked to the cops," he says stoically.

"I know, you talked to detective Espinoza and I'm aware this must be so hard for you. I just wanted to know if the name Paul Sinclair meant anything to you," at that, the blonde man lifts up his gaze towards Chloe, letting a hint of surprise overcome the sadness in his face.

"Why? Do you think he might have done it?" He asks.

"Mr. Lacroix, does the name Paul Sinclair mean anything to you?" Chloe repeats herself, trying not to sound too harsh on the man.

"Yeah, I... We went to high school together. We were super close but we drifted off when I went to college and he didn't," he wipes the remaining of the tears on his cheeks before standing up to properly face the devil and the detective. "Do you think he killed my wife?"

"Clark, we... we found Paul's body in the morning, and we're pretty positive this is a serial killer. Did your wife know him, too?" Chloe is being soft as she speaks, trying not to shock the lawyer too much.

"Yeah, Hannah and I were high school sweethearts, he and his wife, Clarissa Sinclair were, too. Do you think the killer might come after us as well?" He was definitely worried but he was doing a great job at keeping it together.

"We really don't know. Which high school did you go to?"

"Harvard-Westlake high school, class of 2009," and okay, a private school. That would explain why the victims so far had been so well off.

"Okay, if you see any suspicious behavior, like someone from there trying to get in touch with you, call us right away,"

"Our ten-year high school reunion was last night. Everyone's been in contact with everyone," he looks at Chloe with worry filling up his eyes. "Maybe the killer went there,"

"Do you know if anyone of them worked in health care?" Chloe got a small notepad out of her pocket to try and write any name Mr. Lacroix could come up with. However, Clark shook his head at the question.

"Hannah and I went only for an hour, we didn't get much of a chance to get in touch with them,"

"Thank you so much for your help, Mr. Lacroix. Do not leave town, we might have more questions for you," he nods at Chloe's statement, glad that the conversion was over and he could resume his grieving. Losing a significant other, even if the marriage was falling apart, was still the hardest thing that had happened to him.

Chloe and Lucifer didn't stick around for long after speaking with Mr. Lacroix; Dan being the one to tell Chloe to go home and get some rest, to not overwork herself so much and, of course, having Lucifer's entire support. Besides, Trixie was staying at Chloe's with Olga, it was only logical that the little girl would want her mother to put her to bed and read her bedtime stories to her. The rest of the crime scene would be handled by Ella and Dan and there wasn't much else for them to do. All the possible witnesses had been talked to, all the evidence there was had been seen, they wouldn't be able to do anything else until the next morning when they finally got the autopsy report on their second victim. Either way, it was pretty difficult to get Chloe out of her work frenzy, she hated being told to go home, she hated having nothing to do regarding a case.

"At least we have somewhere to start," Lucifer said as Chloe pulled her grey cruiser into her house's driveway.

"You're right, but still... it's too weird that we had no evidence whatsoever with the first victim and with the second one we had so much," Chloe brought the car to a stop, turning the engine off and unbuckling herself.

"Miss Lopez said it was a lack of time," he argues.

"Yeah, but why go kill someone and make a crime scene like _that_ one if you don't have enough time to follow your MO?" Chloe sighed deeply, bringing both of her hands to rest on the curve of her stomach.

Ever since she felt the babies move at noon for the first time, they had been pretty quiet, which was nice for her because otherwise she would have been terribly distracted all day. She found that she loved feeling baby kicks, even more so the first few ones when they just start moving, so when the twins resumed their activity she felt forced to feel less stressed and enjoy the little movements inside her. She smiled small, breathing in deeply and letting the presence of her children be felt.

"Maybe he thought he had time but then the husband made it home early," Lucifer says, completely unaware of Chloe and how she was touching her belly. It was a pretty endearing image the one he was missing.

"Whatever, we just... have to be glad we have all that we have. With any luck, we'll catch him before he kills anyone else,"

"Detective, that's the spirit!" Lucifer praises her, reaching out with his right hand to open the car door. "Come on, I'll make us some dinner," seeing as it was half-past seven and they hadn't had dinner yet, Chloe smiled small, already feeling better about the whole mess their case was. She loved Lucifer's cooking and she knew Trixie did, too.

"I can't say no to that," she smiled softly as she stepped out of her car, closing the door behind her back and walking around it to meet her favorite devil.

The moment she opened the door to her home she heard the loudest squeal of joy coming from her daughter, accompanied by the sound of her footsteps. She hung her purse on the hanger right by the door and went to meet her little girl, but just as expected she ran past her and attached herself to Lucifer as a little baby koala bear.

"Lucifer!" She grabbed tightly onto his hip, placing her head on his abdomen and squeezing him. The devil still didn't know what he should do when the little girl hugged him that way, he still felt a little lost when that kind of thing happened.

"Hello to you, too, spawn," he did the one thing he always did whenever Trixie attacked him with her hugs: he patted her head.

"Is that how things are going to be now?" Chloe asked, faking a tone of hurt and betrayal. She was so aware that Trixie loved Lucifer; she saw her every day, and even if she was seeing him more often now that they were together, she still missed him more than she missed her.

"Mommy!" For the first time, she was the one to break the hug and come running towards her mother, giving her an equally tight hug so she wouldn't feel left out. "I missed you, too!"

"I know, monkey," she planted a kiss on the top of her little girl's head.

"Is Lucifer staying tonight?" She asks sweetly, burying herself deeper into her mother's hug. She just loved Lucifer so much, she wouldn't be mad if Chloe suddenly told her he would move in with them.

"I don't know, why don't you ask him?" She looked up at her partner, finding his almost black eyes staring back into her blue ones. He approached them, closing the small distance between them and as quickly as lightning the little girl wrapped herself around the devil, once again.

"Can you stay tonight? We can do a sleepover!" She asks, placing her chin on his abdomen and looking up to meet his eyes.

"Well, as long as you'll have me..." he carefully brings his hands down to place them on the little girl's back.

"Of course we'll have you!"

Chloe quickly paid Olga for babysitting Trixie all afternoon and said goodbye to her, letting her know that she wouldn't need her for the next day. With that, the house was left with the couple and the child only, allowing them to spend some time together.

"Can we play Monopoly?" Trixie asks, walking up to the kitchen to ask her mother. She had really liked it the last time Lucifer spent the night there and they played board games.

"Baby, Lucifer is going to make dinner for us now. Don't you have any homework to do?" Chloe asks, walking up to her daughter and leaving the kitchen all to the devil. He could do wonders there.

"I don't," she says as she shakes her head, sitting on one of the stools right beside her mother's. "Really can we play?"

"Later, okay?" Chloe reaches with her right hand to get a lock of dark hair out of her beautiful face, placing it behind her ear. "How was your day, huh?" Trixie's face suddenly dropped, letting all trace of her usual happiness and cheekiness slide off. Chloe couldn't help it but feel worried about that, given that Trixie was always in such good moods. "Everything okay, baby?"

"I... We started multiplying by two-digit numbers today," she said, clearly not as excited as she had been before. Chloe's detective instincts kick in at that, making her feel determined to find out what had happened to her daughter. "A-and in biology we talked about evolution,"

"Are you sure that's all that happened today?" She insists, dragging her stool towards the kid and grabbing both of her small hands into hers. The little girl is quick to fix her eyes on the floor, refusing to look at her mother.

She just hated so much when her own problems made her mom worry. To her mind, Chloe was always having a rough time with work and Dan and Lucifer, now the babies, too, and she just didn't like to burden her by adding her problems on top of all of that. She liked being and feeling independent, fighting her own battles and such, but when everything became too much it was still so hard for her to open up. The older she got the harder it became to try and open up to her mother, she was just getting used to fend for herself.

"Baby, you can tell me, okay? I won't get mad at you," Chloe reassures her, giving both of her hands a light squeeze. "Is all of this about you pretending you're fine so you don't worry me?" The little girl shook her head, still looking down to the floor. It was kind of a lie, and she knew lies were wrong. "Then what is it?"

"I don't want to talk about it," she mumbles; the only sound around them was the knife hitting the cutting table as Lucifer chopped down some vegetables.

"Trixie babe, I think you should. Every time you feel like that is because you need to get all those feelings out," Chloe insists, wanting Trixie to open up to her, wanting to see if she could make her daughter feel better.

"It's just..." the little girl sighs, finally looking up at her mom. "I'm tired of the older kids at school making fun of me because you and daddy got a divorce," she says with a shaky voice, quickly looking down again. She felt so torn; she wanted to let her feelings put but also not worry Chloe and just... not let all those awful emotions resurface.

"Baby, that was almost two years ago," Chloe says, fearing the worst. "Have they been making fun of you about that for that long?" She nods, still crestfallen.

"And what do you do about that?" Lucifer steps in and asks the child, chopping down some onions to make dinner. He had been hearing the conversation and attentively looking at them ever since they started talking, paying attention to how Chloe handled the situation.

"I stay quiet. I hit a girl once but they just laughed more at me," she answers him, letting a little pout escape her lips. Chloe gives Lucifer a quick look, silently thanking him for involving himself in the conversation.

"If it's of any consolation, there really is a section of Hell reserved for bullies, and let me tell you, it's awful," Lucifer says, trying to cheer Trixie up, maybe not in the best way but it manages to draw a small smile out of the child.

"Trix, what do these kids do to you?" Chloe asks, ignoring Lucifer's comment but feeling slightly relieved after seeing her little girl smile.

"They just laugh at me, say mean things," Trixie sighs, bringing her attention back to her mother. "Things that make me feel bad,"

"About the divorce?"

"No, I'm happy that you and daddy got the divorce. You weren't happy together and ever since you separated you've been really happy," the nine-year-old is quick to say, reassuring Chloe that she felt okay that her parents were no longer together. "The happiest," she quickly gives Lucifer a glance.

"You are?" Chloe asks her, softly caressing the back of her daughter's hands with her thumbs. "Then why does it bother you so much?"

"It's just... they say really mean things, things that hurt," Trixie was holding back her tears, Chloe could tell, but she was still trying to remain strong, to not give in. It wasn't fair that a child had to feel like that.

"And you believe them?" Lucifer steps in again.

"No, of course not, I know they aren't true," she is quick to answer, head still hung low and voice about to break. "But they don't hurt any less,"

"I know they don't, baby," Chloe pulls Trixie to her chest to hug her tightly, hating the fact that her baby had to go on with her life feeling like that. Trixie couldn't keep it in anymore, and even if she didn't want to, she ended up breaking down on Chloe's shoulder, standing right in between her legs and crying her eyes out. "What did they tell you that has you feeling this bad? I'm going to talk to the principal, honey, I promise,"

"They said... they said _I_ was the reason you and daddy got the divorce," she says with her voice as shaky and broken as ever, clinging on to her mother for dear life. Lucifer was watching the exchange in complete surprise because first, he couldn't believe children had it in them to be so mean, and second, he had never seen Trixie other than happy, it was kind of a shock seeing her so broken. "I'm not, am I?"

"Of course not, baby, you are the reason we tried to keep it going in the first place! So you would never feel this way," Chloe is so quick to say that, feeling the small tears of incompetence and anger start bubbling up in her own blue eyes as well. "Then we saw it would be worse for you if we stayed together, that's why we got the divorce,"

"You promise?" Trixie pulled away from the hug enough for her to be able to see her mother's face. Chloe immediately brought her thumbs up to the little girl's face to wipe away all the tears that were there.

"I do, baby. You are the best daughter daddy and I could have ever asked for. Don't you ever feel like it's your fault we're not together anymore," she pulled her close to her chest once again, hugging her as tightly as humanly possible. "Besides, you said it yourself, everyone is happier this way,"

"Yeah, I know," she mumbled softly, feeling contained and loved by her mother's hug. "You wouldn't have got together with Lucifer if you were still with daddy,"

"That's right, and you really like Lucifer, don't you?" The child pulls away to look at the devil. He was wearing an apron that said 'Kiss the cook' while walking around the kitchen as if he owned the place. She really loved that her mom had found him.

"I do, he's the best," she says, earning a flattered smile from the devil himself.

"Why, thank you!" He brings a hand up to his chest, opening his mouth widely in faked surprise and drawing out a smile from the child.

"It's the truth," she wipes her own tears from her cheeks, turning around between her mother's legs so she could face him.

"I know," he says smugly, liking the compliment. "Spawn, think of it this way: if they don't want to be around you, it's their loss, not yours. And if they are so mean to you it's because they're jealous of what you have," Lucifer says, working his magic at the kitchen.

"Why would they be jealous of what I have?" She asks innocently; Chloe's gaze pretty heavy on both of them.

"You're kidding, right?" Trixie shook her head. "You have a mother that loves you, that her work is literally keeping this city safe. She's selfless, kind, lovely, and she's pretty damn hot, too," Chloe is too flattered to reproach him for saying that to her daughter. "And don't ever tell Dan I said this but he's a great dad and a great person, too. You have two parents that aren't together, yes, but I can easily say they are the best parents on Earth," he sighs, staring at the girl looking back at him with glossy eyes. "And you have me, too, if you ever need me,"

"That's right, you are really cool," Chloe is looking at him with all the awe in the world, unable to believe the beautiful relationship and the beautiful change she was a witness of. "I mean, how many of them can say that they have a friend who has wings?"

"You see? You don't need to feel bad about what they say, they're just jealous of all that you have," he spoke as he moved through the kitchen, getting dinner ready for the two girls in front of him. "And besides, if they keep bothering you I can just go over there and flash them my red eyes. I bet they'd stop messing with you in a second,"

"No, you're not doing that," Chloe says quickly, deeming it necessary to intervene in the conversation. "Neither of you is going to traumatize those kids, nope,"

"Always so boring, Detective Decker," Lucifer teases her, walking over to the bar and leaning over it to leave a chaste kiss on her waiting lips.

"Yeah, mom! Lucifer could show them his eyes and they wouldn't bother me anymore," Trixie protests, taking a step away from her mother so she could go back to sitting on her stool.

"Baby, people don't react well to seeing his eyes. I know what they're doing to you is awful but there are other ways to solve that, better ways," Chloe explains softly, bringing her knuckles up to her cheek to softly caress her skin. "I'll talk to the principal tomorrow, okay?" The little girl nods, feeling so relieved that she had spoken up about her matters. She felt as if a huge load of weight had been lifted off her shoulder.

"Okay, mommy, thank you," the girl gives up on her fight, glad that she had such a great mother to care for her.

"You don't have to thank me, monkey," Chloe says as she gives her a reassuring smile.

"You know, I could go pick you up from school tomorrow," Chloe sends him a sharp look, already glimpsing his intentions. "I won't show anyone my red eyes, Chloe, calm down. I'll just show them how lucky she is,"

"Always so narcissistic," she teases him, getting back at him because he called her boring.

"Can he go pick me up, mommy? Please! His car is really cool," Trixie begs, already too on board with the idea for Chloe's liking. "I promise I won't let him show anyone his red eyes,"

"You promise?" She nods excitedly, grabbing onto her mom's hands and making her best puppy eyes. No one could resist them, every time she did them to Dan, he would be doing whatever she wanted in an instant. "Okay, but he takes you back to the precinct and you stay there with us until the shift's over, okay?"

"Thank you!" The little girl stands up and walks towards her mom to hug her tightly, resting her head on Chloe's chest and hearing her heartbeat.

They don't do much after that, they just enjoy their time to be lazy and eat dinner together on the couch. Lucifer had cooked chicken stir fry for them to eat and they just shared the moment together, talking about the good parts of their days and what else.

The moment Chloe told Trixie that she had felt the babies move, though, that had been hectic. The little girl had gotten so excited over the prospect of feeling her brother and sister kick that she went to bed half an hour later than usual, staying up and waiting for a kick. She literally had her hand on Chloe's stomach for almost an hour until one of the babies moved and kicked underneath her palm, making her feel overjoyed. She was just so excited about her 'big-sisterhood', as she called it, and couldn't wait to meet those babies.

When the excitement died down, Trixie asked Lucifer to put her to bed. Chloe smiled sweetly when she saw the devil roll his eyes before standing up and walking Trixie to her bedroom. The little girl had been on her pajamas ever since they arrived, so she just brushed her teeth, got into bed and waited for Lucifer to read her a bedtime story. From all the nights Lucifer had spent at Chloe's over those last few weeks, he had read Trixie to sleep in almost half of them, which made the detective's heart swell up with joy and love. He was trying so hard and he was doing so good... she just wished he would trust himself a little bit more, just feel a tiny bit more comfortable.

When she finished washing the dishes, she made her way to Trixie's room, staying outside the half-opened door and eavesdropping on her devil and daughter.

"You know," said Trixie; voice soft and low because she was about to fall asleep. "I'm so glad that my mommy found you," Chloe's heart melted at that.

"You are?" She guesses Trixie nods at that because she is unable to hear anything. "I'm glad she found me, too,"

"I like how you protect her, it's like you are her guardian angel," she could hear Lucifer's scoff at that.

"I beg your pardon," he says in a low volume, probably faking the annoyance. "Us angels were made for a far greater purpose, not just to babysit humans," Chloe hears Trixie's giggles at that and she is just unable to stop a smile from growing on her face. "Guardian angels..."

"I think you are one, would you ever let something bad happen to her?" She asks; her voice growing smaller by the minute.

"No, never," Lucifer answers in a heartbeat.

"See? You're her guardian angel," Chloe could bet she already had her eyes closed by how softly she was speaking.

"No, I'm not. I'm the devil," he says; voice almost as softly.

"I love you, Lucifer," just when Chloe though her heart couldn't be more filled with happiness and love, Trixie says that. She couldn't be more grateful for the bond she and Lucifer had. "Good night,"

"Good night, spawn," he takes a moment before he says that, probably taken aback by the fact that the child had told him she loved him. "Sleep well,"

And then, just when Chloe thought she couldn't be surprised by them anymore, she peeked inside the room just as Lucifer leaned over the bed and left a tiny kiss on the little girl's forehead, far too overwhelmed to do or say anything else. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just out of curiosity, where do you guys read me from?? I'm from Montevideo, Uruguay, a small little country stuck between Argentina and Brazil.
> 
> Love you all!!


	16. Chapter XVI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys, when did we get this close to 10k hits? You truly are amazing, I can't thank you enough for reading and supporting this. Reading your comments always makes my day, you are all so sweet! I'd adopt you if I could hahah. Keep it up to make this one (1) girl very happy!
> 
> I was blown away by the number of countries you read this fanfiction from! It's amazing to think that literally, people all over the world are reading this, so thank you!!
> 
> Sorry for the delay but to compensate, this chapter is 10k words exactly, and it solves the case of the serial killer (fianlly)!!
> 
> So, we finally went over the 100k word limit! Seeing as most of you like wordy fics well... let's say there's no limit anymore. I'll write until I feel comfortable and like where this goes and if it ends up being a 400k word fic all I have left to do is hope you'll still read it haha.
> 
> I don't know when next chapter will be up but there's a little surprise for you there, but you gotta wait haha.
> 
> I love you all so much, stay safe and take all the precautions needed, okay?
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> P.S. I almost spoiled baby girl's name in this chapter. Thank God I went over it twice before uploading hahah.

Lucifer was unable to fall asleep that night.

When he came out of Trixie's bedroom he had been immediately met by Chloe's glossy eyes and one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen on her face. She had been just so happy to hear that Trixie loved him, it made her feel surer in her stance towards their relationship and what she was doing with her life, it had been a huge relief. He could only be glad of how happy Chloe seemed to be as of late.

Going to Chloe's bedroom and getting ready to sleep after that had been filled with a lot of teasing on Chloe's side and lots of eye-rolling on Lucifer's, but when the time to fall asleep came around, he just couldn't.

He couldn't stop thinking about what the spawn had said, about how much it hurt her that the kids in her school were being mean to her. How could somebody be mean to her? She was one of the sweetest humans he had ever met, and he found himself not wanting words to ever hurt her again, wanting to protect her, to let her have a normal and happy childhood. Trixie didn't deserve that, she deserved everything good the world had to give her, and ever since that moment Lucifer decided he'd do his best for her to have it. He didn't care about his stance towards children, that had been long forgotten, now he just wanted the people he cared about to have a happy life. They only had so much time on Earth, alive, whereas he... he had all of eternity.

Realizing that the ones bothering the spawn were children themselves, well... that made him feel sick. More than that, it made him grow scared once again. What if his own children ended up being like those assholes that were making the sweetest child on the universe cry? What if he wasn't enough and therefore, he was the reason someone as innocent as Trixie got hurt? He didn't want to fail, he wanted to do things right. Why hadn't anyone written a manual on how to be a good parent?

All he had to lull him into slumber was the steady breathing of the love of his life by his right side and the whiteness of the ceiling surrounded by the shadows above. He had so many questions, so many insecurities, and of course, they all had awful timing when deciding to torment him.

He sighed, growing uncomfortable and feeling the need to just stand up and walk around, the plain old need to soothe himself with something. Just when he was about to lose control over the fidgety-ness of his hands, though, the sight of Chloe's swollen stomach made it into his visual field.

He clearly didn't think about what he did next, otherwise, he wouldn't have done it.

With all the care in the world, moving slowly so he wouldn't disturb his beautiful partner, he lowered himself so his head would be right by the swell of Chloe's stomach, where right underneath the layers of skin and muscle were his children, all snuggled up and warm. He carefully, as if he were trying to feel the softness of a rose petal, placed his hand on that bump that made him feel so many things, immediately letting the sound of one of the babies' heartbeat be heard at the back of his head. They were moving but very softly, at least strongly enough that he would feel them. Having his hand there always implied he would feel the connection he had with them, one he wasn't always so sure he wanted to acknowledge.

"Spawns," he sighed, talking with a soft and low voice so he wouldn't wake Chloe up. "I read on the internet that by now you can hear, so... pay attention," he felt the lightest kick underneath his palm, letting him know that at least one of them was up and listening. "I don't know how to do this, I don't know how to be a dad," he starts; his lips almost brushing against the fabric of Chloe's tee shirt. "But I do know that I want those I love to be happy, and you make your mother so happy... Which in return makes me happy as well. I... I don't know how to live this life, I don't know about domesticity, about children, much less those of your kind but strangely enough, I find myself liking this so far. Your sister's been teaching me that small humans aren't so bad, and I'm starting to believe that now,"

He feels Chloe move slightly, getting herself comfortable in her sleep and it startles him. He was about to take his hand off her belly but then he notices she just kept on sleeping, so he decided to leave it there. A shaky sigh and a couple of seconds later he resumes the unidirectional chat he was having.

"I'll do my best, I'll try my hardest and hopefully I'll become the father you need, but I can't promise I won't fail, I can't promise I'll be the father of the year because if I fail..." he sighs. "My word is my bond, I can't promise you that. I do promise, though, that I'll try," he feels another light kick underneath his hand, it's more like a rough movement, but it manages to draw a small smile out of his lips. "Still, feeling you move from the outside is really weird,"

He takes a couple of minutes to just be in silence, paying attention to the small movements underneath his palm and properly spending time with his children for the very first time. He was so overwhelmed, so full of emotions he was unable to discern between them anymore. He saw how happy and radiant Chloe was, he saw how excited spawn number one was about the babies, and even if he wasn't there yet, he was most definitely warming up to the idea and growing to like it. That was one of the things that scared him, liking this new life so much that he'd leave the comfort and safety of his old one for good. If it were just Chloe and him and they ever broke up, he could easily go back to his old ways, but now that there were children in the middle... he was afraid of losing the chance of going back to how he was before Chloe Decker happened to him. And that, honestly, terrified him.

"I saw your sister cry today," he starts again, bringing his mouth back to Chloe's belly, speaking right against the fabric of her shirt. "I'd never seen her cry before, she's always such a happy little thing," the movements beneath his hands were becoming a lot more spaced out and soft. "Some kids from her school laughed at her and said awful things and I just... Don't ever be like that, please. No one as good and saintly as your sister deserves to be treated that way," it was the devil in him talking, the one that sought punishment for the guilty but also sought peace and happiness for those who weren't. "You have such an amazing mother and the best older sister ever, all I ask is that you look up to them, that you try to be like them,"

He had been so shocked from seeing Trixie cry that he just couldn't not talk about it. She was always so happy, like an annoying ball of sunshine, and he had been so distraught to see her so broken and defenseless that he felt the need to do something, to stick up for her. It was new, yes. Terrifying? Of course. But he still felt glad that he had that impulse within him, the instinct to care.

"Sadly, you'll arrive in a world that's not the best, and if it were up to me I'd change it but the truth is that it isn't. It's up to your grandfather and let me tell you, he lives for his beloved humanity, so much that I don't see that ever happening," the babies were almost completely still, so much that he felt the lightest, softest kick against his palm and that was it, they wouldn't move anymore. "You have to help me care for your mother and sister, we have to make them happy, make _their_ world better" He lightly brushes his thumb over the bump that held his son and daughter, careful so he wouldn't wake Chloe up. "Don't kick your mother too hard, okay? I still don't like the fact that you do that," And then, he ever so softly placed two kisses on Chloe's bump, marking the end of his unidirectional but really helpful conversation. "Good night, spawns,"

The weight liberated from his chest, the words he had spoken to his unborn children had been the ones that finally allowed him to fall asleep. His thoughts just felt far too heavy before, too overwhelming. It wasn't the best improvement but he could be proud of himself, he could be proud that he was trying even though it scared the crap out of him. That had to be good, right? He could be there for Chloe, he could be there for Trixie, all that was left to do now was for him to realize he could do that with his own children, too.

\---------------------------------------

His arrival at Trixie's school had... well, it had shocked him. It wasn't the first time he ever went there, he had gone with Chloe to pick the spawn up very early on in their partnership but it just... it overwhelmed him the number of children that were running around the place. Everything was so loud, everyone was screaming and talking, it looked like a miniature version of Hell but just a bit more colorful and annoying.

He parked his Corvette right in front of the school's main entrance, not caring about getting parking tickets as he always did. He really didn't want to be there any more than he had to so, with a sigh, he tossed the tail of his cigarette and opened the car's door, mentally preparing himself to face the horde of children waiting at the school's front lawn.

"Hello, I'm here to pick Beatrice Espinoza up," he walked up to the entrance and said to the woman handing the children off to their parents, visibly concerned about the number of children there. Those were the kind of human spawns he so despised.

"Sure, let me just check..." when the woman looked up at him, you could see the drool dripping from her chin. Of course, even if he was now in a committed relationship, women would still be drawn to him, he was magnetic. Whilst before Chloe that would have contributed to the enlargement of his ego, now it just made him feel uncomfortable. "Sorry, what's your name?" The woman composed herself.

"Lucifer Morningstar," if she knew who he was, she didn't say a thing. She just looked at some sheets she had on her hands and after corroborating that his name was written on them, she just let him in.

"Come on in, Mr. Morningstar, fourth-graders are over there," she opened the small fence separating him from the school's front lawn and he stepped in.

"Thank you," he said politely, walking to where the woman had pointed.

He didn't see the so-called spawn on a first sight, so he warily approached the group of kids that seemed to be about her age, looking for her familiar face. There were so many screams and it smelled so bad in there he was seriously thinking why Chloe would send the spawn to such an awful place. He was so out of his element he was growing desperate to leave.

"Excuse me," he tapped a boy on the shoulder, making him turn around to face him. He seemed to be older than Trixie, and together with other kids, he was standing in a circle, looking down at something. The amount of mischievous laughter surrounding the place was making him feel ill. "Have you seen... There you are," there, sitting on a bench in the center of that circle and making herself small, was the kindest and purest soul he had ever met, clearly looking disturbed about something. However, the minute her eyes made contact with Lucifer's she jumped in joy, quickly standing up to go meet him.

"Lucifer!" She said, standing up and quickly running towards him, hugging him tightly as she always did.

"Just when we thought you couldn't get any weirder," the kid Lucifer asked said, laughing at the little girl holding on to the devil for dear life. Trixie just hid her face on Lucifer's stomach, trying to make it all go away.

"Sorry, care to repeat that again?" Lucifer was quick to speak, directing himself to the overgrown kid that had insulted the spawn.

"You heard what I said, you freak," the kid talked back to him, making the blood in his veins boil. "Who is this clown?"

"I'm Lucifer Morningstar, wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you," he was trying to contain himself, aware that he was talking to a minor. He lowered his hands and placed them on Trixie's back, hugging her as well. "And this clown, as you so politely call me, owns LA's best high-end nightclub and has enough money to buy your entire life more than a hundred times,"

"Oh, how scary," he teased him; the blood in his veins almost evaporating from how mad he was. "You can have all you want but your kid's still a weirdo, mate,"

"I beg to differ, but the only one out of place here is you," he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. "You seem a bit too overgrown to be in fourth grade, do you find pleasure in bothering the smaller children? Huh?" He leans forward slightly, looking at the kid in the eyes and drawing him into his spell. "Tell me, ham-hands junior, what is it you really want? What's your deepest, darkest desire? It surely isn't bullying younger children,"

"No..." he stutters, looking deeply into Lucifer's black eyes, unable to resist his magnetic pull. "I want... I..." he was fighting against it but the devil was far too powerful for him to resist his mojo. "I want my mother to spend more time with me and my father to come back home,"

"Well, there you have it, a new subject to bully because their parents aren't together anymore," he says to the other children, looking away from the kid in question and smiling smugly. "How hypocritical of you!"

"I don't even know what that means!" He says, ashamed of himself for having said all that out loud.

"I should have guessed. I'm going to politely ask all of you to stop molesting _my_ daughter and go on with your lives. Surely you must have something more important to do than making an innocent child suffer with your words," he talks to all the children around him, not even realizing that he referred to Trixie as _his_ daughter. It was in everyone's best interest that he hadn't realized, that would definitely ensure a breakdown he couldn't afford right then. "Now, come on, chop chop, there's nothing to see here," at that, all the children dispersed, far too intimidated by the tall devil in a suit to even complain about it.

"Thank you, Lucifer," the little girl says, the sound muffled because a side of her face was squished against his abdomen. She pulled away from the hug once she saw all the kids had gone away, standing beside the devil and grabbing his big hand with her small one.

"You have nothing to thank me for, spawn. Now, come on, your mother's waiting for us,"

And with that, they walked proudly towards Lucifer's Corvette; the little girl holding on tightly to the devil's big and warm hand.

\-------------------------------

"Daddy!" The little girl released her hold on Lucifer's hand and ran towards her father the minute she saw him, getting picked up by him instantly.

"Hi, monkey," said Dan, hugging his daughter tightly.

"Lucifer, where were you? I've been calling you non stop," Lucifer heard Chloe's voice as she approached him, already lecturing him about his misbehavior like always. She walked up to him and planted a soft peck on his lips, seeming more worried than mad.

"Oh, we just took a little detour," Lucifer defends himself, looking at the exchange between father and daughter. "I took the little urchin out for ice cream," Chloe looks at him in awe.

"You let her eat ice cream in your Corvette?" Dan says, completely taken aback. Given the fact that they arrived at the precinct at half-past five in the afternoon, it was only logical that the girl had eaten the ice cream on the way there. If they had stopped at the ice cream shop they would have arrived later.

"Don't start, I still can't believe it myself," that had most certainly been a first, and luckily enough the little girl hadn't spilled a single drop of ice cream on his Italian leather seats.

"Guess you really are changing..." and for the first time in a long while, Dan acknowledged something nice Lucifer did. That was odd.

"I really wasn't expecting that. How was your day, monkey? Did the mean kids bother you again?" Chloe asks her daughter, making her pull away from her hug with Dan.

"They did but Lucifer made them stop!" The little girl said excitedly as her father brought her back down to the floor, immediately grabbing his hand.

"Really?" Chloe turned her head towards Lucifer; piercing blue eyes already directed at the devil.

"Yes, I did, but in a civilized way, I promise," he puts his hands up in a sign of defeat, claiming his innocence. He hadn't hurt anyone. "Any news on our case?"

"Let's say I believe you," Chloe really didn't want to have to deal with a bully's parents because Lucifer had traumatized them for life. She already had a lot on her plate to have another problem added to the pile.

"You know I don't lie, dear," Chloe sighed, choosing to believe him. Although he didn't lie, he didn't always tell the whole truth either.

"And about the case, we do have something. Ella looked into the manufacturer that made the artery line and it turned out to be a private facility that makes them for Cedars Sinai Medical Center, and also, I checked the registry of the high school Paul and Hannah went to, and there's a guy named Connor Adair that's a licensed physician. Matched both findings and bingo!" She handed him a folder with all the evidence they had so far, pointing specifically at the picture of a medical pass with the image of a really ugly man on it. "There's a Connor Adair that works at CSMC,"

"So we have a suspect? What are we waiting for, let's bring him in!" Lucifer said excitedly, glad that the case was finally going somewhere.

"I've put out an APB on him since there's so much hard evidence. We just have to place him at the scenes, find a motive and we get ourselves a case closed," she was just so excited to get that case over with. There was nothing she despised more than serial killers and what was worse, all the childhood trauma or awful things that happened in their lives would always be brought up at court so their sentences would be shorter, which she hated. Killing people just because they fit their criteria wasn't justifiable by any means but when it came to court she had no jurisdiction. Her job was to catch the bad guys and bring them into justice, whatever happened legally afterward, she wouldn't know.

"So really, now we just have to wait until someone sees this moron?" Lucifer's excitement died down. He knew APB's and BOLO's meant waiting, and he just wasn't good at that particular thing. He hated waiting. "These are the times I miss Maze the most,"

"I could tell you about all the other background searching I've been doing," Chloe suggests, turning her attention briefly to Dan and Trixie. "Do you mind keeping an eye on her? We really have to get this going," she asks her ex-husband.

"No problem, Chlo. Good luck!" And with that, Lucifer and the detective left towards Chloe's desk to keep discussing the details on their case.

A little bit more than an hour had to go by for them to hear some news on the APB Chloe had put out. In that hour they had learned that Connor had gone to college and med school overseas and that he came from a really wealthy family, but not much more than that. They called Clarissa Wainwright to check and see if she knew anything about Connor. She just told them he was the quiet kid of their class, he didn't talk much, and as far as she knew he didn't have any friends. Also, she confirmed that she hadn't seen him at the high school reunion, and she'd been there the whole time. In conclusion, they had evidence and opportunity, but they were lacking a motive. Nothing was missing in either one of the houses and Hannah's husband and Clarissa had both said they hadn't heard from Connor in years, so they really didn't have a motive.

When they got a hit on the APB they got working. Someone had seen a man matching his description and complexion driving up north in a red SUV, that later on stopped at a convenience store. Acting quickly so they wouldn't lose the lead, they got into Chloe's cruiser and drove up to that same convenience store, finding the red SUV with the same plate number parked on the store's parking lot.

"So what do we do now? Do we go into the store?" Lucifer asked when Chloe parked the car, really wanting that case to be over with.

"We stay here and wait for him to come out, we then confirm if it's him or not and if it is we'll follow him," Chloe was already feeling the weight of the case and the day on her. She felt far more tired than usual and all she wanted to do was get to her house and snuggle up with Trixie; she was starting to not like being pregnant, and in her last pregnancy that had happened well into the third trimester. "You know how this works,"

"I do, but I just want to catch this bad guy. Do you think it's him?" Lucifer trusted Chloe's instincts so much. Most of the times she got a gut feeling, it turned out to be true. When Chloe remained silent and staring off into space, Lucifer spoke again. "You think it's him, don't you?"

"I do," Chloe said simply. "I mean, the evidence isn't incriminating but it can't be just a coincidence. The only link between the victims is that they were high school classmates and it turns out that another classmate of theirs works at the only hospital that has the arterial lines found in Hannah?"

"I love it when you are so determined," he says with a big grin on his face, loving their dynamics, loving her.

"Being a detective for five years has paid off, then," she answers flirtatiously but the moment is short-lived. From the front door of the convenience store comes out the guy and Chloe is quick to confirm he is Connor Adair. It was far too difficult to not notice someone going bald, covered in acne, and with a patchy beard that still looked to be under thirty. The poor chap seemed to be like a teenager and an old man at the same time. "That's him,"

"Good eye," he praises her. "Well, then what are we waiting for, darling?"

Chloe ignores Lucifer's comment and only starts the car when she sees the red SUV leave the parking lot. If that guy was the killer she didn't want to have him know he was being followed, so the precaution was taken. She went after him silently then, not turning on her siren or anything and just following him with at least two cars in between them, never getting too close. He was heading north still, as the APB had said, so north they went.

"Decker," she answered when her phone rang, putting it on speakers in the car.

"Chloe, it's me," it was Dan on the other side of the line.

"What's up?"

"I've got the guy's address. He lives in Long Beach so wherever he's going it's not home," he tells them. Long Beach was down south and they were driving up north towards San Fernando. "Where are you now?"

"Driving up north through highway 5, can you keep an eye on us? Just to be sure,"

"Sure thing," Chloe could hear Dan typing something on the computer. "And hey, Chlo, be careful,"

"We will," she sighed, thankful to have a good friend in Dan. "Thanks, Dan," and with that she hung up the call, focusing all her attention on her driving.

About twenty minutes later they saw the red SUV stop. They had entered a pretty nice neighborhood in Sun Valley, which luckily was still under the LAPD's jurisdiction, and so far it seemed like Connor hadn't caught up in the fact that he had been followed all the way up there. Chloe parked her car far away enough so she wouldn't be seen, but also close enough to keep him in her range of view and there they stood. They couldn't go up to him without it being suspicious, they couldn't risk him finding out they were there.

It was so ridiculous being after someone, following him across town just out of a hunch. Normally they would wait for someone else in the precinct to bring them the suspect for interrogation but Chloe's hunch had been so strong that she had to go after him. What was worse was that, as Lucifer said, Chloe's instincts were notable and most of the times she had a hunch she probably solved the case. The possibilities of the killer not being him were really low taking into consideration all the evidence they had found but speaking in legal terms, without hard evidence placing him at the scene of the crimes they had no business being there... Hopefully, Connor didn't know that. They just needed a motive and to place him at the scene and the justice system would do its thing. That or to catch him red-handed.

They saw Connor get out from the car with a briefcase in hand, dressed in normal, casual clothing. He walked up a small stone path towards one of the nicer looking houses and knocked on the door, waiting patiently for it to open. Chloe and Lucifer were staring at the scene and so far nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary. They had better get something on that guy, at least a statement because otherwise, they wouldn't be able to justify the stakeout.

Just when Chloe was starting to think the scene was far too normal and ordinary to be true, the minute the door was open, Connor attacked a lanky, tall, black man and strongly pressed a white cloth they had missed against his mouth and nose. He struggled for a while, fighting and resisting his attacker but rather sooner than later the sedative on the cloth made effect and he fell like a sack of potatoes on top of Connor.

"Well, if that wasn't suspicious at all," Lucifer says as he unbuckles himself from the seatbelt, ready to take on that case and close it for good.

Chloe was quick to grab her portable radio, phone, her second gun —that she always put on her boot for emergencies— and then unbuckled herself, all at the same time she was trying to get into the mindset of taking a bad guy down. They didn't know if he was armed, they didn't know what they'd say to him, they just knew they couldn't let him get away with killing another victim.

They got out of the car and walked towards the house. Because Chloe had parked a reasonable distance away from the red SUV they had to do a little more of walking, which gave Connor enough time to quickly drag the unconscious body of his next victim into the house.

"Wait, wait, don't kick the door yet," Chloe stopped Lucifer on his tracks, clearly reading his intentions and knowing him like the back of her hand. "I have to record this in case he says something incriminating to the other murders,"

"Very well," the devil said quietly, waiting for his partner to pull out her cellphone and start recording. Sometimes Chloe was so sensible it was overwhelming.

"Go ahead," she gave him permission, putting her phone away in her left front pocket. "Connor Adair, LAPD, hands where I can see them!" She shouted the second the door went flying across the hallway, completely torn off of its hinges. She pulled her gun out of her holster, pointing at anything in front of them.

And, of course, the serial killer had to have a gun himself. Why couldn't just they stick to their _modus operandi_ , that would be great, given the case.

"LAPD, Connor, it's over," she said the moment she faced him, pointing her gun towards the murderer's chest and holding it steadily. Lucifer was standing right beside her, not holding a gun but looking far more intimidating.

"Oh, but is it? Is it over?" He was pointing at Chloe as he spoke but he would nervously move his shooting hand and aim at Lucifer some times; hand shaking vigorously.

Victim number three was laying on the floor and an IV kit was opened and ready to be used right beside his left arm. Inside the briefcase Connor had been holding were pictures, probably of him and his wrongdoings —Chloe couldn't tell— and a costume that was, needless to say, peculiar. It was an adult-sized cloth diaper folded neatly, next to a pacifier and a baby cap both in adult size.

"Mr. Adair, there's no such thing as vigilantes, you have to let people face the consequences of their wrongdoings on their own and at their own time," Lucifer spoke, once again trying to get Chloe behind him so his body would protect her and their children. "You're not God, Connor,"

"Oh, I'm not punishing them," the killer said, briefly looking over to the unconscious man laying on the floor. "I'm giving myself justice for all the awful things they did to me,"

"Connor, that's not up to you," it was Chloe's turn to speak. "That's why we, cops, exist. To take care of all crime,"

"No, detective. In these matters..." he sighed. "I'm afraid you're useless," he removed the lock on his gun, pointing it directly at her midriff. Chloe's cardigan was open and therefore, her belly was full on display, making it the perfect target of a mind as sick as Connor's was. The moment she realized where he was aiming, the biggest, strongest shiver ran down her spine. She was quick to bring her non-dominant hand to her belly, as if it could protect her babies from being shot if that were the case.

"Okay, okay, I'm lowering my gun," she told him, trying to calm him down. She crouched down and put her gun on the wooden floor, standing back up and kicking it towards him, holding both of her hands up in defeat.

"That's better," Connor said, directing his piercing blue eyes to them. He looked to be completely disengaged from reality, as if he had gone completely mad, insane.

"Why don't you tell us, Connor, what these people did to do, huh? What did they do that was so awful?" she was trying to talk him down from it but judging by the look of his eyes, she knew such task would be impossible. It was her, Lucifer, Connor, and a gun pointing at them in the hands of a clearly unstable man. All of a sudden she was far too afraid but certain that someone in there wouldn't make it out alive, and she was seriously hoping it wasn't Lucifer or her children.

"For what? For you to call me crazy? I don't think so," his hand was trembling more and more by the minute, mainly pointing at Chloe but shifting over to Lucifer if the devil were to make even the smallest of moves. Those were the kind of situations where he missed being completely invulnerable and immortal the most.

"I'm trying to help you, here," Chloe continues, holding both of her hands up beside her head and fearing for her life. "I'm trying to understand why you felt the need to do this, to end things this way,"

"Detective, have you ever been bullied?" He asked then; blue eyes open wide and looking at her crazily.

"I can't say that I have," she sought refuge in the mild warmth coming from Lucifer, all without moving an inch.

"Then you wouldn't understand," he sighs as he starts pacing around, growing more confident in his stance. "You don't know what's it like to come home every day of your life crying because of everything you've been told that day, and the day before, and the day before that one. You don't know what's it like to fear the next day, to not know which new torture methods your bullies would come up with,"

"They bullied you at school? That's what all of this is about?" Lucifer asks, making it sound harsher than intended which in return, earns him a gun pointing at his chest.

"You dare dismiss my motives?" He directs himself to the devil this time; gun trembling heavily on his hand.

"I'm not dismissing your motives, I just wanted to let you know that the eye for an eye thing sort of works here. Hell's known for being awful for those who are awful,"

"What the heck is he talking about?" He asks Chloe.

"Lucifer, you aren't helping," she scolds him through a closed mouth.

"You are Lucifer Morningstar, the guy who owns Lux and thinks he's the devil, right?" Connor directs himself to Lucifer once again, recognizing him from his club and his reputation.

"I don't think I'm the devil, I am—"

"—Again, not relevant, Lucifer," Chloe interrupts him, not wanting the conversation to drift away from its axis. The main goal of that was getting everyone out of there alive and Connor arrested, there should be no detouring. "Just... Connor, let us help you," Chloe pleads. "You must have someone that loves you, that wouldn't want to see you do this,"

"I don't," he is quick to say. "My parents... The only people who ever truly loved me died and left me in a pile of guilt, sorrow, and money," he sighs. "I'm doing this for myself, because I love myself," he looks over to victim number three with melancholic eyes, as if he were painfully reminiscing about all the suffering and hurting he had to endure during his teenage years. "And these asshats... They were all scum,"

"Why don't you tell us what happened? What did they do to you?" Chloe insists, wishing she could just ask for backup telepathically.

"Want to know what happened? I'll tell you what happened," he sighs, holding back his tears. "I've never been good looking," Chloe is quick to give Lucifer her piercing eyes to keep him from making any kind of comment about it. Thankfully, the devil gets it and remains quiet by her side. "I've never had good social skills, so I was cast out. I didn't have any friends at school but that was okay, I could deal with loneliness," His eyes, although crazy-looking, were showing so much emotion. "Then ninth grade came around, and my parents got a divorce. I... things were so tense back home that I began... I began wetting the bed as if I were three years old. What was worse was that I already hated myself for that, I... I didn't want that to happen to me," he takes a moment, closing his eyes and drawing in a shaky, deep breath. "It got really ugly when the school year's camping trip came around..."

"Growing up like that must have been awful—" Chloe tries, but it isn't the right move. He doesn't even give her the time to complete her sentence before he's doing something completely out of his impulses.

"—Shut up!" He yells at her.

Something in Connor snaps and, as quickly as lighting he diverts the gunpoint from Chloe's chest to somewhere else and shoots, leaving the room submerged in a deep silence. However, even if his intentions were to just scare them into silence, he ends up shooting Chloe in the leg.

Everything is still for a couple of seconds, things are moving so slowly they're imperceptible; the rumbling of the shot resonating in the room and dazing everyone in it.

Chloe stumbles backward with the impact and hits the floor harshly, falling on her bum and immediately bringing her hands to her bullet wound and applying pressure to it; adrenaline pumping so strongly through her veins that she found herself able to act quickly. The bullet had gone through and through, so she needed to apply pressure before she lost too much blood.

"No!" Lucifer screams the moment he realizes the bullet hit the love of his life, threatening Connor and walking up to him completely without doubt, not caring about the weapon the man was holding. "What did you just do?!"

"Lucifer, don't," Chloe said through a whimper as tears started rolling down her cheeks. She should have called for back up, why hadn't she called for back up?

"If I were you I'd listen to your partner, buddy," Connor said, and even if Lucifer was burning in rage —nostrils flaring with each breath he took— he still chose to stop himself.

"Are you okay?" The devil tried to approach Chloe, tried to crouch down to her level and help her out in whatever way he could, but he quickly found out he was unable to do that, too. 

"Quiet, quiet. I don't want to see you move an inch or the next one goes in her heart," he keeps breathing harshly, and Chloe knows he's fighting the instinct of going full-on devil on him. As terrifying as it could be, it was completely useless if she was present. "So, where was I?" Lucifer couldn't tear his eyes off of Chloe, of the blood that was quickly staining her light wash jeans, of the tears that were rolling down her cheeks. He felt desperate, he wanted to go up there and protect her, comfort her, make sure she was okay, make sure his children were okay. It was a primal instinct hard-wired in him and he was fighting so hard against it. "Oh, yeah, the camping trip," Connor continued, completely ignoring how Lucifer was visibly and painfully yearning to do something for Chloe but was unable to, completely ignoring how Chloe was whimpering in pain and crying, sitting on the floor. "The first night there I... I had an accident. This guy, here..." he points to the unconscious man laying on the floor. "Was the closest thing I had to a friend, barely an acquaintance, so I asked him for help. I... I never thought it would backfire the way it did. The next day all my class on the camping trip knew that I had wet the bed, and three days later the whole school knew about it," he was on the verge of tears, remembering the pain, the humiliation. "Do you have any idea of what's it like to be the subject of mocking, of endless pranks, of endless rejection for three and a half years?"

"I don't," Chloe said, trying to compose herself with her right leg stretched on the floor and the left one as close to her chest as her belly allowed her to. She wanted to protect her babies at all costs but still, her stomach was pretty much exposed. "But I've been cast out, too. Two years ago..." she was panting a little, it was probably the blood that was oozing from her wound even if she was applying pressure. "I was the only one to have visual proof on a detective being corrupt. When he got shot and was left in a coma, I... everyone saw him as a hero and I went and told the lieutenant what I'd seen... and nobody believed me. Until Lucifer came around nobody wanted to work with me, everyone laughed at me, I didn't get a case for months," it wasn't the same situation, and Chloe knew that in the end she was right and justice was made, but she still had to try. "I didn't go through what you went through in high school but I know how it feels to be the odd one out,"

"And don't you want to kill all those bastards? Expose their dirty laundry like I've been doing now?" Connor asks, slowly walking closer to her. Lucifer was itching to stop him but he couldn't risk having him killing her.

"No, I don't. I know they were awful, they are the scum of this Earth but I... I believe in a higher power and that in the end, everybody gets what they deserve," she briefly looks up at the love of her life.

"They deserved to be punished, they deserved to have their secrets exposed as they exposed mine!"

"And they would have been punished just as awfully, if not worse, whether you were the one to kill them or not," Chloe winced in pain, holding pressure on her leg and plainly hoping for a miracle. "You still have a chance to redeem yourself, you can choose here,"

"Without going to jail? I don't think so," Chloe didn't know what else to do. She knew bringing her daughter up, her pregnancy... they would have no effect on him. The guy was a psychopath, things like human emotions and empathy weren't understood by them in the slightest. However, it was all she had left, she had to try.

"I have a daughter, she's nine, and yesterday she came home crying because kids at her school were making fun of her. All Lucifer and I could do then was hug her and tell her she was perfect just the way she is, to not pay attention to them and just, hold her, you know? And that helped... a lot," she started, hoping the bits of humanity left in him would hear what she had to say. "I'm so sorry that you didn't have that, that you couldn't take a break from being the target of all that, but know that there's still time to change, to do better things,"

"Will you let me go if I choose to be good?" He asks, putting her in an awful position. She couldn't promise him freedom, bot if she had a chance to catch him.

"Connor, I... I can't do that," and Chloe had to tell him the truth because otherwise, only God knew how many more people he would kill if they didn't stop him then.

"Well then... I guess I'll just keep on being a bad guy until one of you, useless cops, manages to catch me," he said with his eyes in a cold, bright blue and full of insanity, steadying the hold of his gun with both hands and pointing them at Chloe.

"Wait! Before you do anything you may regret," Chloe tries to stop him, already foreseeing what Lucifer would do if she didn't try. She wanted to have the least amount of casualties possible. "If you kill either of us it'll be worse for you legally, your sentence will be way worse, but just... if you kill me you'll be leaving a nine-year-old girl without a mother, a man without the woman he loves and you'd be taking the chance to live away from two innocent beings I have growing in my stomach," at that, Connor remained impassive, completely untouched, completely unresponsive. No matter how many tears Chloe put into it, how much it pained her the idea of not seeing Trixie become the beautiful, strong woman she was meant to become... none of that made Connor even think about the possibility of not killing her. "If you kill him you'll be taking away these kids' right, the joy of having their father around, so _please_ , think about what you're doing," and there it went, the ace underneath her sleeve, the deepest thing she could say.

"Very beautiful words, detective, I'm impressed," he said; no emotion whatsoever filtering through his voice and the grip on his gun never loosening. He was so insane, so unstable. They had to do something, that man was clearly a danger to society. "However, those are all things I can live with,"

And then, a second shot was heard.

The world around them became still once again, like nothing and everything were happening at the very same time. It was as if the second Connor pulled the trigger, someone up above had put pause on Earth to let Chloe's life flash before her eyes.

The moment the words came out of Connor's mouth, Chloe accepted her fate. She accepted that mid-January, 2020 was as far as her life on Earth would get and she made peace with that thought, she accepted that it had been her last day on Earth.

She thought about Trixie and how much she would miss her, of all the love and the beautiful hugs she had received from her little monkey, and those she would miss. She thought of all the pain and heartache she would have to endure for the rest of her life knowing that her mother was no longer on the earthly plane. She saw her grow up in her mind, saw her become the strong and wonderful woman she was meant to be, and with that she felt at peace.

She thought about her unborn children, the two little nuggets of joy that were floating around in her tummy, having only each other to 'play' with. They were the closest thing there was to the term 'unexpected' but they were so loved already, so cherished. They were completely unaware of what was happening on the outside, they would probably not even feel it but she just couldn't help it but feel guilty. Maybe if she had called for back up before entering the house, then her little ones would have had a chance to be born, grow up and witness the world, and that made her feel horrible about herself. The only thing she could do was ask for their forgiveness.

And then she thought about Lucifer. The devil. The Prince of Darkness, King of Hell, Satan himself. The angel Samael. The one man on earth she swore she would never fall in love with, the one man on earth she didn't even believe existed until the awful afternoon when she first saw his true face. She thought about _his_ pain, _his_ suffering, knowing that he would be alive for the rest of eternity, and in case she didn't go to Hell, well... he'd never see her again. She thought about how much she loved him, of how much she valued his friendship, his devotion, their partnership. She thought of everything they would never get to live, of all the things that would never happen because she would just not be there, their son and daughter being born, seeing them grow up, keep on solving cases together, maybe getting married someday. She quietly and to herself apologized, letting tears roll down her cheeks like a cascade of emotion.

But then, right at the moment she thought all her life had rushed before her eyes, The Almighty pressed play on their life.

"No!" Chloe couldn't understand how but Lucifer's scream had been louder than the shot itself.

And then she heard the unmistakable sound of the devil's wings unfurling, covering up all her visual field. The sound, followed by the small gush of wind that blew her hair behind her shoulders were followed by a painful grunt and the beautiful feathers of Lucifer's left wing tuning from the purest white to ever exist, to the darkest crimson.

He had saved her life. He had taken a bullet for her, and even if she knew it wasn't the first time, it was still just as overwhelming.

"W-what?" Connor's voice had been left completely broken at the revelation; grip on the gun loosening and letting it fall and hit the floor. He was finally showing emotion: fear in the rawest of its states.

"Oh, Connor, darling," Lucifer's voice made shivers run down both Connor and Chloe's spines. Chloe knew him like the back of her hand and whenever he talked like that, she could expect something awful to happen. "You shot me, how awful," he still had both of his wings out but the left one was being dragged across the floor while the right one was tall and proud in all its glory.

"Lucifer, don't..." and yet, the devil didn't listen.

"I can take a bullet, I'm a grown man. Doesn't mean I'm pleased but maybe, only maybe, in any other situation I would have been merciful and let it slide," his voice was slowly but surely gaining that undertone that made Chloe get goosebumps. It was getting rough, throaty and deeper, it was utterly terrifying. "However, you just shot a pregnant woman, that is just sick,"

"Lucifer, please..." it was as if she didn't exist, as if he were purposefully not paying attention to what was happening. She just wanted him to be with her, to hug her and tell her they'd be fine.

"But what's sicker is that, not happy with shooting her on the leg, you aimed for her heart. You would have taken three lives," Chloe could see the fear in Connor's face. "Which, in turn, is even worse for you," Chloe could only see Lucifer's back but judging by Connor's reaction, he had shown him his red eyes. He tripped on his own feet and fell to the floor, crawling backward instead of walking. "You see, this isn't just a pregnant woman, she's the love of my life and those babies growing inside her stomach are _my_ children,"

"Please," the killer begged, sounding like he was crying. Chloe could no longer see his face and she was sort of glad about that.

"Please what? Huh? Are you going to beg for your life?" The devil teased him, walking closer and closer to him until eventually, all he had to do was crouch down to the floor.

"Don't kill me, please," Connor cried, so terrified of the angel in front of him that his last resource was to beg for mercy, beg so his life would be spared. Tough luck the fact that the devil wasn't merciful when it came to people that hurt those he loved.

"Oh, Connor, you're going to wish that's all I did to you," and with that, the thick, dense and beautiful black hair covering the devil's head vanished, letting him show his true colors. His face turned to its true self, to the burned, charred and crimson skin that made people go insane whenever they saw it. His voice finally hit rock bottom as he phrased that last sentence, showing how truly powerful and invincible he was.

However, all the effort Lucifer put into terrifying Connor, in the end, it didn't pay off. The killer made eye contact with the gun Chloe had kicked over to him when they first arrived and made a quick move to grab it, removing the lock from it.

The third, and hopefully last shot rumbled inside the room.

At that moment, Chloe prepared herself to hear the sound of Lucifer's lifeless body dropping down to the floor to drown in a poodle of his celestial blood. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see such an image and bringing one of her hands to cup her belly as if it would protect her children from seeing it, too.

She was surprised, to say the least, when such sound never came and instead all she got was Lucifer screaming angrily.

"No!" The gun in Connor's hand fell to the floor as his lifeless body soundlessly dropped to the ground; a bullet hole going through and through the sides of his head. "He needed to feel the pain, he needed to suffer!"

At that, Chloe checked the wound on her leg and assessed her situation. The bleeding had stopped but she had lost a reasonable amount of blood, and moving could make the wound bleed again. Just knowing that she wasn't bleeding anymore was enough for her to rely on her left leg and slowly pull herself up, feeling dizzy the second she stood upright.

"No, no, what are you doing?" Lucifer was quick to hear Chloe's struggles to stand up but only made it to where she was when she had already accomplished her goal.

"Lucifer," she said in a gasp, holding on to him and letting him guide her towards an armchair that was close by.

"You shouldn't have moved, you're bleeding again," he lectured her, helping her sit down and taking off his jacket to wrap her leg with it and try and stop the bleeding.

"Lucifer, your wing..." she said with her voice small, reaching her hand towards his left wing and touching the small feathers at the top. Lucifer winced at the light touch but made no move to pull the wing away from her hands.

"It will be okay, it is not the first time they get shot," he says as he carefully wrapped his suit jacket twice around Chloe's thigh, making her bite her lips and suppress cries of pain from the pressure. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"

"In pain... Dizzy," she talks in a sigh, resting her back against the armchair, bringing both of her hands up to her stomach. It's then when the realization that her babies may have been injured by her loss of blood hits her and the panic sets in 

"You lost a lot of blood," he said, looking over to the poodle of blood on the floor right where she had been sitting.

"Lucifer, the babies. The babies, I... They're not moving," she panicked, hugging her tummy with her hands and trying to feel even the smallest of movements, just a tiny kick. However, she felt nothing.

Lucifer brought both of his hands to Chloe's stomach, cupping it lovingly and letting his mind be filled with the sound of both heartbeats, one clearly faster than the other as they always were.

"They're okay, they're okay," he reassured her, leaving his hands on her bump and resting his forehead on Chloe's unharmed thigh. "The pesky little buggers probably slept through all that," Chloe laughs a little, putting her smaller hands on top of Lucifer's big ones and letting herself calm down with the news that they were fine.

"They did..." she sighed, coming down from the high of adrenaline she had been in and starting to feel the real pain of the bullet wound. She had forgotten how painful it was to get shot through and through, the last time being on her and Lucifer's first case together. "We need to... we need to call back up, I... call Dan, he'll get the help here faster,"

Lucifer nodded and grabbed Chloe's phone from the front pocket of her jeans, quickly typing in her password and unlocking it. He stood up then and looked over to where the unconscious victim and the dead murderer were laying before quickly dialing Daniel's phone number and calling. He picked up almost immediately.

"Chloe, oh my God, you had us worried. You never go so long without saying a thing!" Dan is quick to say, not even asking who was on the other end of the call.

"Sorry, Daniel, it's Lucifer," the devil said.

"Everything okay? Where's Chloe?" Her ex-husband said with worry in his voice, ready to freak out if needed.

"Connor shot her on the leg, but she's okay, she's conscious. He was the killer," he said simply. "Look, I need you to send two ambulances and whatever team you send to deal with a dead body in a scene. Connor shot himself,"

"Tell him... tell him to not come here, to stay with Trixie," Chloe says from behind him, feeling weak.

"Oh, and Chloe says you better stay there with the spawn,"

"A-are you sure you don't want me to go?" Dan asked him as he typed something on his computer; movement and orders could be heard on the other side of the line. "I've already sent you a team and two ambos,"

"I'm sure, Daniel. Stay with Beatrice, I've got it covered," Lucifer turned around to check on Chloe, finding her staring off into space.

"Take care of her," Daniel orders.

"With my life," and with that he hangs up the call, going back to the love of his life who was groggily staring into nothingness and slowly closing her eyes. "Hey, hey, don't fall asleep, okay? Talk to me,"

"I... are you sure your wing is okay?" She focused her eyes on Lucifer's left wing. What had once been white and heavenly was now covered in celestial blood, and some was still oozing from the wound.

"I mean, it's not okay but it will be," he tells her, crouching down beside her and grabbing her hands into his.

"When did they get shot before?" She asks; mind froggy and dizzy.

"Actually, it was the day you found out I was the devil," he tells her, willing to tell the story so she would stay awake. She had lost a reasonable amount of blood, more than a pint, she had to make an effort to stay awake. "When Pierce... or as I was trying to tell you before, Cain, shot you, I held you close to my chest and wrapped my wings around us when all his thugs started shooting at us,"

"You did that?" He nods softly, remembering the agonizing pain he had felt. He would feel that one hundred times a day for the rest of eternity if it meant Chloe and the babies would be safe.

"I counted sixty-three bullet holes in total,"

"How did you heal from that?" She asks again; eyes fixated on the wound in Lucifer's big and majestic left wing.

"Well, you went to Europe right after that, so in about two days they had already healed completely," she brought her eyes back to focus on Lucifer's dark ones and gave him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry... that I left and I... that I did all those awful things to you," she apologizes, remembering her encounters with Father Kinley and the fear she had felt.

"It's okay, miracle, we've been through that already," he brought his right hand up to lovingly cup her cheek, catching with his thumb one of Chloe's last tears.

"I love you," she mumbled, pushing her cheek further into the warmth of Lucifer's hand.

"I love you, too,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The parallel between Trixie's bullying and the serial killer being bullied was completely accidental (I knew Connor would be bullied but Trixie's situation came up as I was writing) but I hope the message was clear. Bullying destroys lives, I'm talking from experience here so please, just be nice to one another. The world would be so much better if we gave all the love we have to give!


	17. Chapter XVII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! 
> 
> I just wrote 6k words of fluff but I felt it was necessary so, I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Weirdly enough, I don't have much to say here so, without further adieu, I'll leave you to SGTDE's chapter 17!
> 
> Thank you for your support, its unbelievable we've gone past 11k hits in less than three months! Keep leaving kudos and comments if you like this! Reading your comments makes my week, it makes me soooooo happy! 
> 
> Stay safe, as always. 
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Two weeks had gone by since their last case. Chloe couldn't help it but feel like she had failed when they didn't get to bring Connor into justice because he killed himself, but at least he wasn't a danger to society anymore and was rotting in Hell. The only hope for punishment she had to hold on to was trust that Lucifer's brother, Ansel, was doing a great job handling the damned souls and punishing them accordingly. Thinking of that made her feel more at peace.

When the backup Lucifer called for came to the scene they had to take her to the hospital. Lucifer had very slowly and very painfully put his wings away and gone with her in the ambulance, holding her hand and talking to her so she would stay awake. Losing that much blood had made her groggy and disoriented, she had to go to the hospital so the doctors could do something about it.

Upon arrival, they immediately hooked her to an IV line and gave her two blood transfusions. Her wound wasn't bleeding anymore —thanks to being pregnant with "tiny baby devils" as she had said while slipping in and out of consciousness, which earned her an awful lot of teasing on Lucifer's side— but because she moved from the floor to the armchair back at the scene it had opened again, making her lose more blood than she initially had.

When they gave her an X-ray to assess the damage, the doctors were incredibly surprised by her luck. The bullet had grazed her femoral artery, a thick enough blood vessel that if injured it would make someone die in less than a minute. Upon examination they saw that the wall of the artery had been grazed by the bullet but not strong enough to tear it, keeping the bleeding manageable. What had truly happened, though, was that the bullet had, indeed, punctured her femoral artery. That was the reason she lost so much blood in the first place but, being pregnant with at least one celestial being had been the reason why she wasn't actually dead. Had Connor shot her when she wasn't pregnant and she would have already been buried six feet under.

She had to stay in observation for three days. The damage done to the muscle and bone on her right leg had been great, and although she was healing really quickly, the babies could only do so much. They had gotten to see their twins again, though, and that had been really exciting. It was just a routine ultrasound to check that everything was okay with them as well but just seeing them on the screen, even if in black and white, had been really emotional and touching for Lucifer. Those were _his_ kids, _his_ babies, he still couldn't wrap his head around that.

The highlight of the hospital stay, though, was when Lucifer thought Chloe was fast asleep and took that moment as an opportunity to talk to his spawns and thank them for keeping Chloe safe. She had to forcefully avoid tearing up because she knew Lucifer thought she was asleep, and it had been so hard because his words had been so sweet. She knew that if she ever said something to him about it he would go back inside his shell and she didn't want him to do that, not now that he was finally opening up. She would do anything to keep things the way they were.

When she finally got discharged she was naively hoping for things to go back to normal. However, she was quickly hit by the fact that she would have to be on bed rest for another week, and that later on she probably wouldn't be allowed back at work. Even if lieutenant Monroe was a stern and professional woman, she cared about Chloe and valued her work, which meant she would be stuck at home until further notice.

However, Chloe was far too smart for the world. She literally had to force Lucifer to go and convince Olivia with his charms to let her back into work after her bed rest was over. She was healing exceptionally fast and the babies were unharmed and perfectly fine as well, she could do paperwork at least.

Back to the present, two weeks since the incident, Chloe still couldn't walk. Her leg hurt awfully whenever she put any weight on it, so she still had to use her crutches wherever she went, which was, for lack of a better expression, a pain in the ass. She wanted her healing process to be over already, and even if she knew she was healing exceptionally fast, she still couldn't wait to be back in the field and walking.

"Good morning, beautiful," the devil's voice was delightfully hoarse, a sign he had recently opened his beautiful, chocolate, eyes to a chilly early February morning. His large hands were protectively placed on the swell of Chloe's stomach, bringing her back closer to his warm chest.

"Good morning, handsome," the detective replied, stretching against the warmth that the devil's core was providing.

Their routine had drastically changed over those last two weeks. In the beginning, Chloe literally needed help with everything, from dressing up, to going to the bathroom, to sitting down even. Now, she was far more independent but Lucifer's protectiveness over her had remained intact; he would find himself asking her whether she needed help practically twenty times a day.

"What time's it?" Chloe mumbled, bringing her hands to rest on her stomach, right beside Lucifer's. The devil pulled away from their spooning position with the intent of looking at the clock on the night table, wincing in pain the moment his back made contact with the mattress.

"Early," he mumbled, choosing to remain laying on his back.

"Your wing's still hurting, huh?" Chloe asked him, moving carefully so she'd be lying on her other side, wanting to face him.

"Well, that's an understatement," he looked up to the ceiling; the first colors of sunrise filtering through the window.

"C'mon, let me see," Chloe asked of him, propping herself up on her forearm. "You haven't let me see your wings ever since then, you have to let me take care of you, too,"

"Darling, there's no need for that," Lucifer said calmly, bringing his dark eyes back to her.

"Yes, there is, Lucifer. This is a relationship, we both have to be there for each other, help each other out. It has to be bidirectional,"

"Muffin, you had a bullet go through and through your leg just two weeks ago and had to have two blood transfusions. My wing can wait, seriously," he brought his right hand up to her cheek and lovingly stroked her, making his detective lean closer to the warmth of the touch.

"Well, I don't want your wing to wait," she brought herself up to a sitting position with extreme care, being aware both of her leg and her belly. In just two weeks her stomach had grown from where it was before, slowly but surely making each and every movement a little harder. "I want to see,"

"You really are not letting this go, are you?" Lucifer asked her, sitting up on the bed as well. He was bare-chested already, having worn only a pair of silk boxers to sleep.

"Sweetheart, have you met me?" Yeah, Chloe was the closest thing to the definition of 'determination' that ever set foot on Earth.

"Very well," he gave in. "Watch out, though," and he unfurled his usually majestic, white wings in front of the love of his life once again. He grunted immediately as his left wing came free, laying on top of Chloe's lap as he did so.

"Lucifer, oh my God, you haven't even cleaned them?" Chloe said dumbfounded, looking at the mess of dried blood and messy crimson feathers surrounding the bullet wound in his wing.

"Well, that's an oxymoron," he said once the pain in his left wing became bearable again.

"Go pick up a cloth and some warm water, I'm cleaning this," Chloe ordered, putting her hands right beside her hips and pushing back so Lucifer's left wing would be further away from her own wound.

"Darling, it really isn't necessary—" the devil tried to argue but it was fruitless.

"—Go. Now," and he did because, when did he do something that wasn't what Chloe wanted?

He got up quickly and walked towards the ensuite bathroom, filling a bowl with warm water and grabbing a small towel to use as a cloth; wings draped on the floor and trailing behind him. He quickly came back inside the room and sat back on the bed, handing Chloe the bowl and the towel so she could groom his formerly beautiful wings.

"Careful," he hissed the moment the warm towel went near the vicinity of his bullet wound.

"Sorry," she apologized, placing a kiss ever so softly at the top of his harmed wing, pretty far away from the wound.

Lucifer stayed silent while Chloe cleaned the dried up blood from the soft, white feathers that made up Lucifer's left wing. He was so gorgeous like that, just completely bare before her, it was truly breathtaking. It went further beyond the fact that he was hot and an actual angel; whenever he unfurled his wings or let his devil face show, he was being vulnerable, showing himself completely defenseless before her, and Chloe loved that. She would never get used to how giddy and comfortable his vulnerability towards her made her feel, he was a gift.

As her hand went over the feathers of his left wing with the softest touch, she found herself wishing her little ones would have them, too. They would be so cute; two little babies with two little white wings on their backs. If Lucifer's were soft, theirs would be even softer, that she was sure of. She knew it would be dangerous to deliver them if they had wings, and that they would make the whole world rethink their faith or lack thereof if anyone found out, which meant that it was in everyone's best interest that they were born without them. She was just so overwhelmed with it all but so excited at the same time.

"You know? I could get used to this," Lucifer's deep morning voice took her out of her trance. However, she couldn't make up what was that he said.

"Huh?"

"What are you thinking? Is something bothering you?" He asked, forgetting his initial comment and being quick to notice Chloe's distraction.

"I just..." she sighed. "I find myself wanting the babies to have your wings... they are beautiful and just..." she couldn't really get in touch with her words, with what was bothering her.

"There's a possibility they might," he adds, enjoying the soft grooming and attention given to his wing.

"I know, and I'd really like that. But it also scares me,"

"Why would that scare you? I've come to learn that human spawns are so harmless and inoffensive they can't even take care of themselves until at least twelve years of age," Lucifer says, thinking about Charlie and how defenseless he was, even for a celestial being.

"Yes, Lucifer, but these aren't human babies," Chloe stopped her grooming momentarily, bringing a hand to her stomach and taking a deep breath. "What if the rest of the world finds out about them?"

"They won't," he said simply, turning around and carefully maneuvering his wings so he wouldn't hit Chloe. "We won't let them,"

"Lucifer, it'll be pretty shocking for my Ob/Gyn if I give birth to two babies with wings," Chloe brought both of her hands to her womb now that Lucifer was facing her, feeling the softest kick ever underneath her palm. "We won't be able to hide that,"

"If they had their wings out, we would know by now," Lucifer reaches to touch her cheek with his right hand, lovingly caressing her skin. "And _if_ they have wings, they have them in their pockets. Besides, if they ever unfurled them in there," he pointed at her belly. "You would have noticed. When us angels were small, our wings were disproportionally large in comparison to our bodies,"

"Really?" Chloe asked incredulously, imagining a tiny version of Lucifer. She knew angels never really grew up, everything was a concept that was far too great for her human mind to understand, but she'd like to know what Lucifer would've been like if he had ever been a baby.

"Luckily there weren't cameras up in The Silver City, our wings were huge. It's like we had to grow into them," that drew a smile out of the miracle in the room.

"Could you put them away in Heaven?" She wondered.

"Yes, we could, but most of us chose not to," he extended his wings, showing them in their full glory before slowly and carefully draping the left one on Chloe's lap, hinting he wanted the grooming to keep going.

"It must be so beautiful up there," Chloe wondered, imagining what The Silver City must be like. It was so out of the range of things she could understand, the whole concept of divinity.

"Well, it's as beautiful as it is cold and boring," he said as Chloe picked up the towel and started cleaning the front of his wing, carefully avoiding the wound so it wouldn't make him uncomfortable.

"You know," Chloe's train of thought took a turn when looking at the mess on the front of his wing. "I still don't understand why you won't go and sleep _one_ night over at the penthouse and let this heal," she said, changing the topic suddenly and now referring to the injury in the devil's wing. "It's just one night and I'm sure this would be ten times better the next day,"

"I don't want to leave you alone," the devil said simply.

"But it's just... Lucifer, you can't fly with your wing like that,"

"I think I can, actually. I flew you up to a rooftop with sixty-three of those in them," he argues, attempting to flap his wings but wincing in pain at the smallest of movements.

"Yeah, but you had enough adrenaline to restart the heart of an elephant in your blood, now you don't," she said objectively, bringing the towel closer to the bullet wound as if to make her point clear.

"Darling, it's not like I use them too much, okay? I lived without them for five years," he still couldn't understand how he had been able to go through self-mutilation without as much as a tear. The thought of cutting his wings off again was just too much for him to handle.

"I don't want to see you in pain," Chloe's hands were slowly but efficiently removing all the dried blood from the longer feathers, the ones further from the wound.

"Neither do I, that's why I'm staying with you," he argued.

"Yeah, but it's just... I don't have the chance to go far away from you for one night and be completely all right the next day. You do,"

"And I don't care that I do," there was the reason why he was called the prideful one.

"You are really stubborn," she complains, not looking into his eyes.

"It's just... when we were with Connor, I... if I hadn't been there he... he would have killed you," Lucifer opened up, showing Chloe why he was so reluctant to leave her alone.

"He would have, yeah," Chloe looked at him in the eye, those chocolate pools that held so much beauty in them. Her voice was soft and the movements of her hand on his wing became slower.

"And I can't... I don't want to live without you, Chloe," his voice was soft but it was as if he were choking on his own words, as if he were trying to drown them, to not say them. "And it also made me realize that I... I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if anything happened to them," he brought a hand to Chloe's stomach, placing it on top of it and feeling a kick underneath his palm, as if one of them were listening to what they were saying. "What does that mean?" He asked her confusedly and Chloe brought her hand down from his wing to place it on top of his.

"It means that you love me, which we both know," she said softly and carefully, as if she were trying to approach the most skittish of animals. "But I think you're also starting to like the idea of them, that you care about them," she put a little bit of pressure on his hand, clearly referring to her growing stomach. "And that's okay. It's perfect, really,"

"Does that mean I love them?" He asked, completely clueless as to what he was supposed to feel. Chloe wanted to say yes, she wanted to tell him that he did, but she also wanted him to figure out his feelings on his own, without any external pressure.

"I don't know. Do you feel like you love them?" She was really overwhelmed by the conversation, like she was about to burst into the biggest smile ever.

"I don't know," he giggled nervously, softly caressing Chloe's stomach with his thumb.

"How would you feel if suddenly they weren't here anymore? If they just disappeared?" Chloe asked him, tentatively going towards where he was resisting to go.

"I'd hate that," he was really quick to say, as if he hadn't been able to contain himself. "I would be sad, angry,"

"And why would you feel that?" Chloe pushed the limit.

"Because I know how happy they make you and... how excited you and the spawn are about them and I... I wouldn't want you to be sad," and as always, that was the truth. There was still just a tiny bit of it more that he was holding on to. "And... because they're ours. They're _our_ spawns,"

"Yes, they are," she was trying to hold back her tears and her smile; eyes glossy as she looked up to the devil. "They're ours, we made them. They're in here, they are a reality, _our_ reality," she smiled softly at him, looking down to her belly when she felt a particularly hard kick against Lucifer's palm. "I don't know what it is you're feeling right now, but just know that it's okay. I love you, they love you, and it's okay if it takes you a little longer to say it but we know. We feel it," Lucifer couldn't believe how lucky he'd gotten, how a woman like her ended up with a man like him. "Of everything that you're feeling right now, what can you name?"

"I... I'm excited," he said, concentrating in the kicks underneath his palm and trying to get into contact with what he felt towards his children. "I'm curious, terrified... I'm happy,"

"You are?" He nodded at Chloe's incredulity.

"I'd do anything for them," he continues, probably not aware that he was literally pouring everything he felt into that conversation. "Just thinking about what Ansel tried to do to them makes me recoil, makes me want to go down to Hell and give him a piece of my mind," Chloe's grip on Lucifer's hand tightened at the mention of Hell and Ansel.

"Well, there you have it, then," she smiled softly at him, loosening her grip on his hand and softly caressing her knuckles. "That's enough for us,"

"I love you," he said all of a sudden, looking down to where his hand was placed and, for the first time, Chloe felt different. She felt like she wasn't the only one at the end of those three little words she had heard so much but would never get tired of hearing. She felt her heart start racing, eager to know what came next, what he would say next. "I love them," he told Chloe this time, looking up at her and looking proud of his discovery.

"You do?" Chloe's eyes were filled to the brim with happy tears, all ready to start spilling any second. "How did you know?"

"I... I think it's because I'd do for them everything I'd do for you," his hand softly caressed her stomach, the beautiful and warm place where his children were resting, floating happily and not having to worry about anything. "And I know I love you,"

"We love you, too, Lucifer,"

The devil brought his hand up to his miracle's face to give her the sweetest of all caresses, giving the conversation the closure it needed. It was so overwhelming finally realizing he _loved_ his children, in the best way possible but still, all the emotions were going haywire inside him, making him feel all kinds of things. It had taken him more time than what was normal, what was expected, but Chloe was so glad he had gotten there eventually. It was a one of a kind journey, indeed.

Lucifer carefully moved his wings away from Chloe's lap so he would be able to fold them behind his back, keeping them hidden from the rest of humanity. He did the right one first and, with a couple of grunts and winces, he got his left one hidden, too, going back to his seemingly human form.

"Well, time to get moving, darling," of course and as he always did, after a heavily emotional conversation he would just shake his head and move on. What he had done there had been beautiful, helpful in so many ways, but he wasn't ready to let his thoughts play with his mind and he surely wasn't going to let them. That was one thing he still had to work on.

He got himself out of the bed, ready to help Chloe off of it, too, and start their day. Chloe was still working and Trixie still had to get up and ready for school; that morning talk had been a one of a kind talk because they never woke up that early.

And all of a sudden, their newly founded routine, their new but temporary normal was broken once again, but this time by the most unexpected person ever.

"Pumpkin!" Chloe immediately brought the covers up to her chest the moment she heard the door harshly open and the voice of Penelope Decker fill up her room.

"Mom? What the hell?!" She exclaimed, completely not expecting her mom to stop by. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, finally, darling. I would have seriously thought you had issues if you turned this guy down," Penelope was quick to say, eyeing Lucifer hungrily. It was only then that Chloe realized Lucifer was a pair of black silk boxers away from being naked.

"Mom, it's seven in the morning. What are you doing here?" Chloe asked her, completely taken aback by her presence.

"I just landed here and I thought why not pay my pumpkin a little visit?" She said sweetly, eating herself inside the room.

"You: get dressed and hand me your sweatshirt," she said to the devil, pointing to a black sweatshirt he had worn the night before, having ditched his usually impeccable three-piece suit. "Mom, can you please wait outside? Don't wake Trixie,"

"Sure thing, love," and with that she left Chloe's room, closing the door behind her back. "What the hell was that?"

"I love Mama Decker," Lucifer said smugly, walking over to the chair where his sweatshirt was laying and throwing it to Chloe. Chloe was quick to put it on herself, loving how big, warm and cozy it was. She loved wearing his clothes.

"Ugh, it's barely seven in the morning, why can't I have some peace?" She complained, pulling the covers away from her chest and moving slowly so she would be sitting over the edge of the bed.

"Darling, it's just your mum," he walked over to her and picked up her crutches and the cast she had to wear over her clothing whenever she stood up. Its main purpose was to keep her muscles from contracting more than necessary and let her have a less painful recovery. "If it were mine, we would have to fly out the window and beg for our lives,"

"Good point," she addressed as the devil helped her put the cast on top of her flannel pajama bottoms. He then helped her on her feet and handed her her crutches so she could move independently.

"Go talk to her, okay? I'll take a shower," he briefly planted a small kiss on her lips and walked towards her ensuite bathroom, proudly showing off his beautiful body to her.

Chloe sighed. She normally had at least a three-day notice before having to deal with her mother, it was really weird that she would just show up at hers, even more so at seven in the morning. It wasn't that she didn't like seeing her, it was just... Penelope could be really demanding and really intrusive, like a noisy neighbor, and you could say she wasn't ready to deal with that at seven am on a Wednesday.

She moved over to stand in front of her floor-length mirror to check that her belly wasn't too visible. She wouldn't keep it from her mom, she would tell her she was pregnant, she just didn't want it to be the first topic of their conversation. She accommodated Lucifer's black sweatshirt over her stomach, making sure it wasn't as visible as it would be otherwise, and made her way towards the bedroom door, getting into the mindset of going downstairs with her crutches. Going up and downstairs was a pain in the ass with her leg as it was.

She went downstairs as carefully as she possibly could, trying not to fall and not to get too fatigued. Turns out having to use crutches is a lot more tiring than it seems, even more so at five months pregnant.

"Oh, darling, what happened to you?" She said scandalized upon seeing her daughter with the removable cast on her leg and the crutches.

"Got shot on the leg about two weeks ago, it's no big deal," she walked —or rather tried to— over towards the stools in her open kitchen, slowly taking her time to sit down without hurting her leg too much.

"Pumpkin, you can't walk, how is that not a big deal?" Chloe dismissed her as she rested her crutches against the kitchen divider.

"Seriously, mom, I'm fine," she says, trying to soothe Penelope. "I'm healing really fast, It could have been far worse,"

"Do you need me to stay? Lend you a hand or anything?" Penelope offers, grabbing her daughter's hands into hers and giving them a squeeze.

"No, mom, but thank you. Lucifer's got it covered," at the mention of the devil's name, Penelope raises her eyebrows almost as high as her hairline.

"So... Lucifer, huh? Finally," the actress says smugly.

"Don't be so smug about it!" Chloe reprimands her, having already known that the topic would come.

"Darling, I'm not being smug!" Penelope defended herself. "I'm really happy for you,"

"You are?" Chloe asked incredulously. She knew her mom loved her and all, but she and always been so absent, so... immersed into her work life that little things like those, when they happened, were a thousand times more valuable.

"Do you remember that night, the day of the court trial for your father's murderer?" Penelope asked her daughter, squeezing her hands so she would know she was there for her right at that moment.

"Of course I do. You told Trixie how awesome dad was, that you were the fun one and he was the fierce one," Chloe responded, remembering that night as it had been yesterday. She had felt so close to her mother at that moment.

"And I also said that what you and Lucifer have can be easily compared, just the other way around," Chloe nodded, trying to keep a hold of her emotions. Pregnancy hormones and cheesy talking with your mother weren't necessarily the best mixture. 

"It is pretty much like that. He's the fun, careless, most of the times irresponsible one, I'm the law-abiding homicide detective and... the truth is, we work amazing together," the detective confessed. She could rejoice in the fact that she felt cared for, that she was being heard. "We have the highest closure rate of the whole precinct,"

"Yeah, but not only at work, pumpkin. That time, I told you I wanted you to have what your father and I had..." Penelope's voice was soft and sweet, just proud of her baby girl. "You _do_ have that and I hope you're smart enough to keep it. It's just... you have such an amazing chemistry and not everyone can say they get to experience that,"

"We found out what we had a little bit late, didn't we?" Chloe was looking down, blushing slightly. She knew all those things about Lucifer and their relationship but having someone that hadn't seen them together as much telling her so... that was amazing.

"What matters is that it happened, and baby, I'm so proud of you," Penelope leaned in and hugged her daughter softly, patting her on the back delicately. For Chloe, it felt so nice to be wrapped in the hug of her mother once again.

"Thank you, mom," the tear that managed to escape the confinement of her eyes was quickly wiped away with her own thumb. Her pride was far too big to allow someone to see her cry but her hormones were far too strong for her not to.

"It's just... you look so happy, Chloe," Penelope pulled away from the hug and stared into her daughter's glossy blue eyes. "Look at you! You're glowing, you've even put on some weight! I'm so happy for you," crap, she had noticed the weight gain. At that moment came the realization that she would have to slip all the 'I'm five months pregnant with twins' somewhere in the conversation.

"I am... I really am," she sighed then, looking down to her covered abdomen and feeling a couple of light kicks from underneath her skin, somehow reassuring her that everything would be fine. "And well, the glowing and weight gain have a reason," she started.

"I'm guessing it's all the wining and dining you're getting from your man. How can a woman not glow with the attention of such a nice looking, British man?" Penelope guessed, turning her voice more towards a suggestive tone.

"Actually, mom..." and there it goes. She just had to focus on the little kicks and movements inside her stomach and try to bring her heart rate down. "I... I'm pregnant" Penelope's face slowly went from usual happiness, a glad expression, to a mixture between mild shock and euphoric excitement, exactly the kind reaction Chloe thought she would have. She felt so relieved the secret was out. Her mother was the last important person that had to know about the babies and now that she did Chloe just felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. "And I know it's definitely not the best time and most certainly not the best situation, but—"

"—Are you kidding, honey? Those are great news! Oh my God, I'm so happy," she went in for a hug again, getting closer to her daughter in the process. "I've always wanted to have more grandkids and when you and Dan got the divorce I just gave up on that!"

"I know..." Chloe whispered.

"How did you get Lucifer on board with this? He doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would want to have kids," Penelope pointed out.

"Oh, I didn't and he definitely isn't. This pregnancy fits the definition of 'unexpected' to a tee, he just had to take his time and get used to the idea," Chloe just laughed it off but it had been so hard. Hearing Lucifer say 'I love you' to the twins just minutes before her mother barged in had been one of the most beautiful and rewarding experiences she ever had. Having to accompany him on his path towards the acceptance of his fatherhood while carrying two beings with unknown powers and even unknown physiology inside her uterus had been hard on her, but she couldn't regret not even a second of it. "And he recently did, and I'm so proud of him,"

"I'm so happy I might burst," Penelope said with a laugh, still holding her daughter's hands tightly. "I'm getting another grandchild!"

"Yes, you are," Chloe's tears were threatening to make an appearance once again but she managed to successfully keep them at bay. "You know? They're not coming at the right time, not by a long shot, but they're so loved already," Chloe placed a hand on her bump, molding the oversized sweatshirt over it to make it a little bit more visible. At her words, Penelope's smile only grew wider.

"Am I..." Penelope locked her eyes on the curve of Chloe's stomach, where the detective's dainty hand still rested on top of it. "Are you using the they/them pronouns because you don't know what you're having or is it what I think it is?"

"Surprise?" Chloe tried, giving away the second part of the news, a part that conveniently came with a second child altogether.

"Oh my God, Chloe, you're giving me a heart attack," Penelope placed a hand on the left side of her chest, looking excited more than anything. "You're kidding, are you kidding?"

"I'm not, mom. It's twins! A boy and a girl," she brought both of her hands back to her womb, framing it with them so Penelope could see how far along she was. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, but it's just... if I told you everything that's been going on in my life you'd never believe me,"

"Oh, my baby! I'm so happy for you!" Penelope stood up and hugged her daughter once again, this time a little bit tighter. "You are going to make such a cute little family,"

"Thank you, mom. It really means a lot,"

Taking into consideration the fact that Penelope's arrival had messed with Lucifer and Chloe's early morning routine, it was an understatement that it also messed with their breakfast and going to work as well. Trixie had been over the moon that her grandmother was there to shear breakfast with them, so much that she sits on her lap through the duration of it, asking her questions and sharing her excitement about her brother and sister with her.

Penelope Decker herself had been a pretty intense thing to handle on a Wednesday morning, even more so when she was excited and focused on something. Right then, all she wanted to do was throw Chloe and Lucifer a baby shower to get the twins some gifts and celebrate the pregnancy. Both Chloe and Lucifer had pulled faces at that and mildly tried to make up excuses for why they shouldn't do the gathering, but man... Penelope was a strong-minded, stubborn woman. It also didn't help the fact that Trixie was completely on her side.

When the time to leave the house and start with their day came around, Penelope insisted that she'd stay in Chloe's home, preparing things for the baby shower nobody asked for but she was so set on doing.

When you don't know what's coming it can be scary, terrifying, but it's way worse when you know exactly what's going to happen and you know you have no power whatsoever on the outcome. Chloe was sure that by Saturday she would have a bunch of people guessing the circumference of her belly and making bets on when the babies would be born, just all that cheesy baby shower kind of stuff. Probably by the end of the night, she would have her house filled to the brim with toys they didn't know how to work and tons of animals made with rolled diapers and bows. She really didn't want that.

"Oh man, today's going to be a hard day," she said as she and her partner exited the house, leaving Penelope to do all her "baby shower planning"

"Indeed, love," Lucifer answered, intertwining his hand with hers and walking over to her gray cruiser.

And needless to say, that day would be rough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, a little bit of the conversation Chloe has with Penelope was based off of a deleted scene from 2x10 "Quid pro ho" that you can find here: https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_sRd-bD2fu/?igshid=1v4trqzsef0us
> 
> So, question time because I'm really curious. Which are your top three most favorite Lucifer episodes? Mine are 3x15 "Highschool Poppycock", 3x06 " Las Vegas with some radish" and 3x13 "Till death do us part" from most favorite to least favorite but I love them all three! Which is really weird because season 3 is the season I like the least *blames it on Pierce*
> 
> Love you all and hope you liked it!


	18. Chapter XVIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! It had been a while since the last time I updated this quickly! I’ve just been a little down as of late and I’ve been procrastinating on everything that has to do with university so I though why shouldn’t I upload quicker, right?
> 
> Sadly, I’ve got a test on the 16th and one on the 20th so chapter 19 is going to take a while.
> 
> I’ve bought myself an IPhone as an early birthday present and I’m the happiest girl ever. Writing in here is so much easier!
> 
> Keep it up with the comments and kudos! They make my week and even if I don’t reply, know that I always read them! Sorry for not having replied last chapter’s comments but I was feeling down. 
> 
> I love you all with all my life! You’re seriously the best part of my life right now!
> 
> Stay safe!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

"I just..." Chloe sighed, resting her head against the car seat.

That day had been rough, to say the least. Her head was throbbing inside her skull, she was feeling nauseous again and all she wanted to do was go home and not have to deal with anything else. The babies were kicking like crazy and that was the only thing that managed to make her smile, and that was because they hadn't started kicking up into her ribs yet. When that moment came she would even dread feeling baby kicks.

The minute she got to work, a rain of texts started falling on her phone, driving her insane as she tried to do paperwork and actually be a detective. She then realized it had been a mistake leaving her mother at her place to do all the 'baby shower preparations' for a party she didn't even ask for. She didn't know how to tell her it wasn't in their plans to have such gathering, it would surely break her heart.

Nearing noon, a text lit up on Lucifer's phone screen, telling him to go immediately to Lux to take care of "urgent business". He hesitated for a while, arguing with his managers and asking why his presence was so necessary. Eventually, he gave up and went there, all after telling everyone in the precinct Chloe was not to leave the place and to look after her. He just felt so anxious at the prospect of leaving his loves behind.

Lucifer leaving from noon to about five in the afternoon did Chloe some good. It wasn't that she didn't love him or that she didn't want to spend time with him, but after two weeks of being constantly under his watch, well... It had become overwhelming, to say the least. Lucifer couldn't see it but it had been beneficial for both of them; Chloe got some space to herself and Lucifer got far away enough from her that his wing would heal at least just a little. In the end, everyone felt better. The only downside was that the entirety of Chloe's 'me time' had been filled by text after text from her mother.

"You get that she's really serious, right? She wants to throw us a baby shower," Chloe complained to her favorite devil, bringing her hands to her stomach to bring emphasis to her complaint but also to feel her little ones moving around.

They had gone to pick Trixie up from school and were heading to Chloe's house, which was as of late the place where Lucifer slept at the most. Their Taco Tuesday had to be postponed because Dan couldn't make it on Tuesday, but as it turns out he also couldn't make it on Wednesday either, so they were on their own: mother, daughter, and devil... And probably grandmother, too.

"Why don't you want a baby shower, love?" The devil asked as he drove, briefly looking at the woman with whom he was in love. "It's a party, after all,"

"Yeah, mom, why don't you want one?" Said Trixie from the backseat.

"It's too much. We're still getting in touch with the idea that there are two half-angel babies in here, we don't need a party," Chloe argued, rubbing her growing stomach as the little half-angel, half-human babies moved around. They had found the babies would be the most active during late afternoons and late at night as well. "Besides, baby showers are done a couple of weeks before the baby is born, I'm barely past halfway there,"

"I insist, it's a party. We could use one of those," Lucifer said, completely oblivious as to what a baby shower actually was.

"Lucifer, do you actually know what a baby shower is?" Chloe asked.

"A party is a party. If there's alcohol, music, and dancing then count me in," a sign that he had changed over the months of being in love with Chloe was that he excluded hot people from his requirements. That felt nice. 

"There's literally none of that in a baby shower. Everything people do is decorate onesies, build animals out of diapers, guess the circumference of my belly, etcetera," Chloe sighed. "I really don't want that,"

"Sounds like fun to me," Trixie said, engaging herself in the conversation.

"It most definitely doesn't sound like fun to me. We're not having a baby shower, Chloe," The devil changed his mind immediately, already hating the idea.

"Yeah, tell that to my mom," she sighed yet again, wishing she didn't have to tell her mother off. "She called me today because she found a bakery that makes cookies with names for parties. She wanted to know the babies' names! I mean... We don't even know what we're calling our children and my mother wants to go on and put it on cookies?" She was overwhelmed, to say the least.

"Then go in and tell her all that," Lucifer said as he conveniently parked the grey cruiser in front of Chloe's home.

"I don't want to break her heart," hormones during pregnancy were awful. On one side Chloe wanted to yell at her mom for practically imposing the party on them and on the other she wanted to go through with it to make her happy.

"Do you desire to have a baby shower?" Chloe shook her head and there she had her answer. It was too overwhelming adding a party on top of everything else they had to do. "Then tell your mother. Call the whole thing off before it can even begin," Chloe sighed one last time, opening up the door on the passenger side of the car and carefully getting her legs out of it. Trixie was quick to climb off the backseat and hand her the crutches so she could stand up.

"Thank you, monkey," she lovingly patted her head once she stood up, smiling down at her soon to be eldest.

They walked to the door of the house and Lucifer opened it, letting Chloe and Trixie in first, all for them to find the Penelope sitting on their kitchen stools with a notebook in hand and making phone calls.

"No, I do not know when the shower will be," Penelope argued to whoever was on the other side of the call. "No, I don't know the names of the babies either. Wait for a second, my daughter's here, let me ask her,"

"Mom, what are you doing?" Chloe asked warily, walking closer to her with the help of her crutches.

"Hi, sweetie. Can you please tell me the name of the babies? I found a woodwork shop that makes handmade signs that we could hang from the ceiling to welcome the guests,"

"Mom, we don't know their names yet. I already told you," she tried, being under the curious stare of her daughter and devil.

"Oh well, their last name? Which one will they be taking?" Penelope insisted and Chloe was on the verge of bursting. She really didn't want to deal with her mom.

"Again, we don't know that. Can you please... just hang up the phone," she asked her with a sigh.

"But, sweetie—" Penelope tried.

"Please," Chloe insisted, painting her voice a little bit more stern and with presence. Penelope does as she is told and hangs up the call, placing her phone on the marble allowance. "What are you doing, mom?" Chloe tried again, this time with a softer but more tired approach.

"Organizing the baby shower, of course," Penelope said as if it were obvious.

"Did you ever stop and thought about asking us?" She gave Lucifer a quick glance, then she looked at Trixie, and Lucifer got the command: take the spawn away. With a hand on her back, he walked the little girl to her bedroom, probably to help her do her homework or something of the sort.

"Everyone likes to have a baby shower when they're expecting," Penelope presumed as Chloe made her way towards her, sitting down on a stool nearby. "We did one for Trixie, remember?"

"Yeah, it was the most awkward afternoon of my life," Chloe complained, getting comfortable on the stool and resting her crutches against the wall. "You invited everyone you knew. Dan and I were there and we didn't know anyone, we just had to smile and look pretty,"

"Oh, honey, it wasn't like that," Penelope tired but the look Chloe gave her was enough to shut her up.

"Look, mom, I don't mean to sound ungrateful but we really don't need this right now. We're still adjusting to the idea that there are two babies instead of one in here," she placed her hands on her stomach to give her words some emphasis. "This morning when I told you that it wasn't the right timing, I meant that. I'm happy that I'm pregnant and I'm happy that it's with Lucifer but it's just... We're right on the border of too much right now,"

"I understand..." Penelope said with her voice small; blue eyes getting glossy.

"Yeah, mom, but do you?" Chloe smiles at her, placing a hand on her thigh. "We went fourteen weeks of my pregnancy thinking it was just one baby. Lucifer was so scared and hesitant, he still is, and then we found out there were two. It's like things keep piling upon us... I mean, I was shot two weeks ago. If the bullet had been an octave of an inch closer to the right I would be dead now, and it really is a miracle how I haven't had a miscarriage with everything I went through," she smiles up at her mom, trying to make her feel a little bit better. "That's why I'm telling you: we don't want a baby shower. Don't keep adding things to the pile, please,"

"I just wanted to shower my grandchildren with gifts and a celebration of their life," Penelope said as she held back her tears, bringing one of her hands to rest on Chloe's.

"And that's wonderful, we really appreciate it, but... That can be done without the party and the wooden signs and the cookies with their names on them," Chloe felt so bad that she was crushing her mom's dream of organizing the baby shower but she also felt good that she was standing up for what she wanted. Mixed feelings during pregnancy were tough.

"I will still buy them tons of toys, just like I do with Trixie," Penelope talked with her head held down, resigned to the fact that she wouldn't be having the party she wanted.

"I know you will," Chloe smiles at her and carefully brings her mom's hand from her thigh to her belly, were right underneath the babies were moving like crazy. Penelope's eyes brightened up at the feeling, still glossy but with nicer emotions. "The little things are the ones that matter,"

"They're moving like crazy," Penelope said, feeling the bumps and kicks underneath her palm. Feeling a baby move from inside the womb would never get old.

"I know, this is their peak hour," they laughed together at that, enjoying the bonding moment born from a not so nice conversation.

Penelope hung out with her daughter, granddaughter, and the devil for a little while longer before she left. She alleged she still had things to do down by her place and she would be flying off to Europe in less than a week, so she was running short of time. She said "LA was a busy city but the people who live in it are even busier," and with that she left, planting a kiss on every cheek she saw and giving extra cuddles to the little girl in the room. She promised she'd be back, though, she always did, and aside from all the baby shower drama, they had had a beautiful time together.

The minute Penelope was gone, Trixie insisted that they started on the filling for their tacos. It would be a Taco Wednesday without Daniel but it wouldn't be less special because it was different. They were introducing Lucifer to the tradition and that was "cool", as little Beatrice would say.

"Are you sure you have no homework to do?" Chloe questioned her daughter for the umpteenth time.

"Yes, mom! I had an assignment for tomorrow but I made it yesterday. Can we please start on the filling?" The nine-year-old —soon to be a ten-year-old— asked excitedly, jumping out of joy.

"You and Lucifer can go ahead and start on the filling, I'm gonna take a shower, okay?" Trixie nodded with all the excitement concentrated on her face as she ran towards the kitchen, setting up all the utensils they needed for making their tacos. "You can watch her for a while, right?"

"Yes, I don't think the spawn will give me much trouble," he pecked Chloe on the lips very lightly before walking towards the kitchen, where Trixie was already going mad with all the utensils. He then sighed, telling himself he would be fine.

He crouched down to the floor to pick up an onion for the filling, standing up and seeing Trixie’s face so joyful he was afraid she would burst. 

“Okay, so, which one of us is going to cry?” He held the onion in front of her as if to make his point clear.

“You, of course! I’ll chop down some sweet peppers,” she stood upon a little stool so she would be at a comfortable height and started chopping the sweet peppers, being very careful but also very messy at the same time. “Lucifer, can I ask you a question?” She said without losing concentration on her task.

“Anything, you little miscreant,” he answered, peeling off the first few layers of the onion and already regretting it. Celestial being or not, onions always made his eyes water horribly, even more so whenever Chloe was around.

“Can you take me flying someday?” She looked up to him from her little place on her stool; the hope in her dark eyes shining through with every word.

“Uhm,” he hesitated, not knowing what to answer. He wouldn’t mind taking her flying across the city but he doubted Chloe would ever let him. “You’d have to work your puppy eye magic on your mother, very intensely may I suggest, and my left wing would have to have healed but if your mother gives you permission, then it’ll be my pleasure,”

“Cool!” She exclaimed, careful of the knife she was holding. “You know, why isn’t your wing healed already? Aren’t you an angel?” The little girl asked curiously, looking up with her shining dark eyes.

“Archangel... or at least I was,” he corrects her. “I haven’t healed yet because being around your mother makes me vulnerable,” he explains simply, hoping the nine-year-old would understand it on the first try. He had learned not to underestimate her.

“Vulnerable in what way?” She insisted.

“In every way you can think of,” he sighed, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand when peeling the onion started stinging them. “To put it simply, I become mortal whenever she’s in my vicinity. I can’t die if I get shot, getting injured hurts, and I heal at a normal human rate if I stay close by,”

“Then why don’t you go away for a few days? You’ll feel better,” Lucifer was starting to love how children always seemed to only see the nice, uncomplicated side of things, like the easy way out.

“I don’t like the idea of being away from you, your mother or the spawns, I like being around,” his eyes were hurting terribly as he chopped down the onion into small pieces, getting ready to put all the ingredients into a sauté pan.

“That doesn’t make sense! If you’re hurting because you’re around my mom, then you should leave... At least for a couple of days, enough so your wing gets better,” the little girl’s logic was so simple and yet Lucifer couldn’t see it. He would go through an eternity of ruling Hell all over again if it meant that his family would be safe, and if he needed to be there to protect them he’d forget any injury he had. He’d do anything for his girls and his little boy.

“Do I look like I care that it doesn’t? I want to be here, to protect you all. I don’t care about my wing, it’s not like I use them much either way,” he responded as he finally chopped down the last bits of the onion, thankful that his eyes wouldn’t be watering anymore.

“I don’t agree,” Trixie crossed her arms over her small chest, frowning at the devil and trying to make her point clear.

“Oh goodness me, you’ve got your mother’s temper, haven’t you?” He deemed the conversation over and decided they should focus on their cooking, so he pushed the chopped onions and sweet peppers aside and grabbed a sauté pan. “Hand me the oil, will you?”

“You don’t scare me,” she said grumpily, handing him the bottle of vegetable oil so they could sauté the onions and sweet peppers together. 

“That’s because you know I would never hurt you. You should ask all the people I sent to the psychiatric ward after showing them my face,” he poured some oil on the pan and brought it to the stove, trying to keep Trixie away from it. He was no expert in children but he knew that if the little miscreant ended up burnt, Chloe would be pissed.

“You’ve never shown me your face,” and just like that, her anger towards the issue of his vulnerability had gone away and had been replaced by her usual curiosity, this time focused on his devil face.

“That’s because it’s ugly and terrifying,” he said simply, letting the oil warm up before sautéing the chopped down vegetables.

“Has mom seen it?” She managed to climb on top of the allowance, sitting with her legs over the edge and dangling them.

“Why do you think you went to Europe for a month last year?” He was being a little sarcastic and bitter, but in his defense, it had really pained him having Chloe run away when she first saw him. After all, it wasn’t like he hadn’t been telling the truth ever since they first met.

“That was because she saw your face?” The little girl asked innocently to which Lucifer nodded, pouring the chopped onions on the pan. “And she got scared of you?”

“She was terrified,” he said as he nodded again. “I don’t blame her, at least she didn’t go mad. It took her a while but eventually, she accepted me and well, here we are now,”

“It can’t be that bad, I mean... I’ve seen Maze’s demon face,” Trixie was happily dangling her legs over the edge of the countertop, enjoying her talk with the devil.

“Maze’s face is not even half as bad as mine is. I really don’t want you to be scared of me,”

“I would never be scared of you!” She exclaimed, sounding surprised that Lucifer would ever say something of the sort. “I know you, Lucifer, I know you would never ever hurt me or my mom,”

“How can you be so sure?” He wondered.

“You took a bullet for her,” Trixie was quick to say, referencing the wound on his left wing.

“I actually took sixty-four,” he smiled lightly as he sautéd the vegetables, amazed that a nine-year-old would be so understanding of him, so welcoming.

“It isn’t about the whole ‘You’re the big bad devil that’s gonna damn everyone’, those people don’t know you as we do,” she gave him her biggest smile, trying to reassure him. “I... they don’t get it, they got you wrong,”

“You’re so alike you’re mother, spawn,” he smiled down at her, drowning himself in the disbelief and amazement. Trixie was golden, she was what everyone should aspire to be, and he had her right in front of him, she was his step-daughter. “Thank you,”

“If you still don’t want to show me, that’s okay, but if you wanted...” she really wanted to see his true face, the punishment his father had imposed over him for defying Him, she trusted him with her whole heart. If only people were a little bit more like that.

He sighed and turned down the heating on the stove to the minimum, walking over to where the little girl was sitting.

“Are you sure you want to see this?” Trixie nodded with the biggest smile plastered on her face, trusting him wholly. “Because I really don’t want to traumatize you,”

“You won’t, Lucifer. I already know you’re the best!” She was so mature but so childlike at the same time, so innocent but so brave and daring, she was the spitting image of Chloe’s personality.

“Flattering,” he smiled and looked down, before looking up and flashing his red eyes. It was like he was searching for a middle ground, trying to give the nine-year-old an easy way out if she felt too uncomfortable. However, although he expected screaming and crying and fear, all he got was the biggest smile and the cleanest eyes looking up at him, staring straight into the fire of his irises. “Very well,” he sighed and allowed his true face to be shown.

Trixie’s expression of glee never faltered, her eyes never lost the trust and the love they held. Her wide smile and shiny eyes remained exactly like that during the entirety of his shifting and well into seeing his true form, looking all over his face and trying to take in every little detail. She then, when she felt confident enough, reached out with her little hand to touch the crimson, charred skin, letting a small giggle escape her mouth at the texture of his skin. Lucifer was completely awestruck.

“It’s really rough,” she commented with her hand against the devil’s cheek, rubbing the irregular, harsh, and burned skin as softly as she possibly could.

“Yes, soft skin isn’t on the list of perks of being the devil,” he said with his voice small, trying to channel his usual persona but finding himself unable to. He was in shock that she was taking it so well, that she was literally seeing a monster and she still trusted him as if he were the hunk he always showed himself to be.

“This is really cool, can you go trick or treating with me this year?” She would never cease to amaze him. A child, out of all the creatures that existed on earth, was the one that took the concept of divinity and his true form the best. Just when he thought he couldn’t grow more attached to the little miscreant.

“You, deceptive little parasite,” Lucifer laughed a bit, placing his still human-resembling hand on top of Trixie’s small one, keeping it in place on his left cheek. “Of course I can go with you. We may have to take your brother and sister though, and I’m not so sure they’ll like this too much,”

“I think they will,” Trixie says softly, finally showing signs of being overwhelmed. It was all positive, she was happy, but it was so overwhelming it was making her voice unstable. “You’re their dad, they will always love you, devil-face or not,” and then she threw herself onto him, giving him her biggest, most bone-crushing hug yet. She buried her face in the crook of his neck where the skin was still charred and rough, clinging to him like a lifeline as she wrapped her slim legs around his waist. “I have the coolest step-dad ever,”

“Yeah, monkey, you do,” Lucifer lingered a little bit longer in the hug, slowly changing his form back to his human-resembling one, to what he looked like back when he was still an archangel.

And right in the middle of that bonding moment they were having, the bell ringed, signaling that someone was waiting at the doorstep. The sound was followed by a strong knock on the wooden door, as if whoever was there were a little bit impatient.

“Were we waiting for anyone?” Lucifer asked, pulling away from the hug and questioning the girl.

“Maybe it’s dad, maybe he made it to Taco Wednesday!” She brought herself back to her feet, landing swiftly on the floor. “I’ll go get it!”

“If it’s kidnappers scream and I’ll be there,” Trixie laughed loudly at that, running towards the door as Lucifer resumed his cooking labor.

The little girl ran to the door with excitement running on her veins, smiling widely and feeling full, happy. She opened the door without a care in the world, without even asking who was there, and the surprise she got was, for sure, one for the books.

At the sight of the woman on the doorstep, Trixie launched into her, giving her the tightest, most bone-crushing hug ever, her second one in less than five minutes but in her defense, it was very much needed.

“Maze!” She screamed with delight, launching herself into her and not holding back the tears coating her eyes.

“Oh, Trixie, my favorite human,” Maze crouched down to Trixie’s level and hugged her just as tightly, smelling her, bringing her close to her soulless chest and loving the feeling of having her back into her arms. “Look at you, you’ve grown so much!” Trixie refused to pull away, clinging onto the demon like a koala and crying into the crook of her neck. She had missed her so much! It had been five months of not knowing anything from her, of not hearing a word of her whereabouts, they didn’t even know if she was alive or not. “Oh, baby, don’t cry!” She forcefully pulled the little girl away, getting a couple of strands of hair out of her face and looking into her wet, dark eyes; her own being filled with emotion as well.

“I missed you so much!” Trixie exclaimed, going back into the hug and feeling whole again, content as she had ever been.

“I know, baby, I’m so sorry,” Maze hugged her just as tightly but being careful not to hurt her, rubbing her back up and down as she comforted the little girl. “I had to leave for a while, I’m so sorry,”

“Why did you leave?” Trixie asked her in between sobs; she was the happiest she had ever been.

“Lucifer went back home and he didn’t take me with him, so I was really mad at him. I still am, so I had to go and do a little bit of soul searching, okay?” Trixie nodded, pulling away from the hug and looking at Maze with her cheeks wet from her happy tears. “And in my journey, I met with a friend that was also doing the same,” Maze looked up to the beautiful woman standing beside her, looking at the scene with big and glossy eyes.

“But you dummy, Lucifer’s back!” Trixie said before looking up to follow Maze’s dark eyes, finding Eve standing right beside them. “Eve! Hi to you, too!”

“How come he’s back?” Made asked her, taking at least half of the sweetness from her voice the minute Trixie told her the devil was back, walking the Earth.

“Yeah, he is. He’s cooking taco filling in my kitchen,” and just as if he had been invoked, the three girls on the doorstep heard his calling.

“Spawn! Everything alright?” He called, going over to the bar counter and looking at the entrance of the home, finding the three women looking at him, one with pure adoration, the other one with mixed feelings, and the one not of this Earth with pure rage.

Maze carefully pulled Trixie aside, letting her stand beside Eve before she stood up herself and made her way into the house. If her eyes could do what Lucifer’s could, they would be neon red by then.

“You son of a bitch,” and then the first punch was thrown; a right hook to Lucifer’s left eye.

“Hello to you, too, Mazikeen,” he greeted her sarcastically, standing straight after the force of the impact made him stumble to the right.

“How dare you go back to Hell and not take me with you?!” And there went the second punch: another right hook to the devil’s left eye once again.

“I’m sensing you’re quite mad right now,” he insisted with his sarcasm, pulling himself back up. Normally, fighting with Maze could be tough but bearable; now that Chloe was nearby, a couple more punches and he would be out.

“At least your common sense is still intact,” she went to hit him again but Lucifer caught her fist midair, stopping her. She expected him to hit her back but he refrained himself from doing so, catching her by surprise instead. “Oh, come on, you’re not gonna fight back? I’ve been wanting to do for five months, five!” He hit him on the gut this time, making him grunt out of pain.

“No, Maze, I’m not going to fight back, there’s a child in the room!” Eve and Trixie had entered the room and were standing a reasonable distance away from the demon and devil, watching the fight develop.

“Don’t worry about me, keep at it,” Trixie said excitedly, apparently finding it amusing.

“Of course you’d say that!” Lucifer was punched in the face one more time and kicked on his right leg to get him to stumble. Maze was playing with him as if he were an action figure, a mere doll and he was letting himself be her dummy, her punching ball. “Maze, I get that you’re mad but can’t we just talk this out?”

“Oh, so now you want to talk things out, huh?” Another punch, another bruise. “You left, Lucifer. You went back to Hell without me,”

“Yes, yes, I know, but I’m not sorry,” he did a rather bad job at defending himself. “And before you punch me again, do you know what I went through? I was in Hell for two months but down there it was eighty years,” she was still looking at him like she wanted to dissect him, which was something normal if we’re talking about Maze, but the anger and rage within her were too great. “What about Charlie, huh? What about Eve? The spawn?” He pointed at their spectators; The first woman bringing the child closer to herself to avoid something going wrong.

“But you were my friend,” she said, voice softening just a little.

“And I still am. That’s why I went alone, Maze, you have a life here,” Lucifer argued, standing straight once again for what felt like the umpteenth time, already feeling the bruises and pain Maze had inflicted on him. “And so do I, that’s why I came back,” Maze pulled away at that, walking over to where Trixie and Eve were standing and trying to cool herself down.

“How did you get out? How did you avoid having demons roaming the Earth?” She asked, still mad but at least she wasn’t hitting him anymore. That was a start.

“My brother, Ansel, he did something far worse than I did so dad forced him to watch over Hell,”

“Ansel was always so quiet and nice, what could he have possibly done?” It was Eve’s time to intervene, getting herself into the conversation.

“Too long of a story,” Lucifer sighed, sitting down on one of the stools and catching his breath. He had missed Maze but he had most definitely not missed her punches.

“That was so hot, baby,” said Eve when Lucifer didn’t give her an answer, turning herself towards Maze and she then, without any shame, started making out with her. It was a one of a kind scene, to say the least.

At the PDA, Trixie ran towards Lucifer, hugging him tightly by the side and making him wince in pain once again. She didn’t even apologize.

“Are they together?” She asked, watching the scene before her eyes.

“What do you think?” And there it was, his usual but trustworthy friend: the sarcasm. “Spawn, can you go turn the stove off before the fire alarm goes off? I guess dinner is ruined,” Trixie nodded and ran towards the kitchen, quickly turning off the only knob that was on in the stove and coming back to her rightful place: Lucifer’s side.

That was the scene Chloe came upon with when she came downstairs after taking her shower. On one side, Maze and Eve making out like no one were watching and on the other was Lucifer sitting down, all beat up and with Trixie hugging him by the waist. Pair that with the smell of burnt food and you get a version Chloe all too confused.

“What the Hell happened in here?!” She exclaimed once she was able to step down the last step of the staircase. Luckily enough the fight hadn’t broken anything in her home but the atmosphere was tense, to say the least.

“Decker, what happened to you?” Maze is quick to say after pulling away from Eve, making a wet sound with her lips. Trixie scrunched up her nose in disgust.

“Got shot on the leg, long story. Care to explain what happened here?” Chloe looked at Lucifer, watching his left eye slowly take on a darker purple color.

“Oh, just a little bit of banter between old friends, not much,” Lucifer tried to dismiss the situation but the look on Chloe’s face was enough for him to understand that it was impossible.

“We burned dinner,” Trixie added with her voice small; face almost completely buried in Lucifer’s stomach.

“Why, thank you, spawn!” The devil winced in pain once again, trying to pull the kid away from himself. It was like back to the old times.

“And Maze came back!” The little girl was so excited that she was failing to see the mess around them.

“I see, baby,” Chloe made her way slowly but surely towards the devil, wanting to look after him and see how his wounds were. “Why did you two fight?”

“The asshole went back to Hell without me,” Maze spat out, clearly mad at him still.

“It wasn’t a vacation destination, Maze!” Lucifer winced the minute Chloe’s fingers brushed against his forming bruise, going from his left cheekbone all up to his brow bone and on his eyelid.

“Yeah, it wasn’t, but it was home,”

“Maze! Hell is not home anymore, we have a life here on Earth, at least I do,” he smiled up to his miracle, even through the pain. “And it’s one that I intend to keep,” He did the opposite of what he was trying to do before, and pulled the little girl closer to his side, trying to get his point across.

“If you don’t start acting in a civilized way, one of you is going to have to leave,” Chloe said with her voice as stern as it could possibly be.

“I went back to Hell because I didn’t want the demons to come after the people I care about, that includes you, Maze,” Lucifer toned down his voice, speaking more carefully and with more emotion in his words. “I spent eighty years away from the people I love, you have to be glad you didn’t have to go through that. You can’t use that against me,”

“Yeah, whatever,” Maze dismissed him, trying not to pay too much attention to the words the devil had spoken.

The room sunk into an uncomfortable silence, It was only people looking at people and trying to figure out what step was the next one to take.

“You guys could stay for dinner if you wanted... There’s no more Taco Wednesday but we can order some takeout and eat together,” the detective suggested, trying to alleviate the tension inside the room.

“Yes, thank you, Chloe. That would be lovely,” Eve said, smiling sweetly at her as Trixie found her way back into Maze’s embrace, having missed her too much. 

“Decker, you got fat. How many pounds have you gained?” Chloe’s mouth opened up in surprise, but then again, it was Maze, a comment of the sort could always be expected on her side. “Actually, it reminds me of when Linda was... Holy shit, not you too,” as the realization dawned on her, her face shifted from mild anger and uncomfortableness to an expression of utter surprise.

“Twenty weeks and counting,” Chloe said, releasing her hold on one of the crutches to place that hand on her growing belly. She was wearing a long-sleeved, grey T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants, which meant that her belly was full-on display.

“You’re pregnant?! Chloe! Congratulations!” Eve said with a lot of excitement, walking over to the detective and wrapping her in an uncomfortable hug.

“Wait a second, how is not the asshole in the room freaking out right now?” Maze said dubiously, looking at the devil with narrowed eyes. “That is, of course, if the spawn is his. Maybe Decker went all around LA having rebound sex while Lucifer was in Hell,”

“Maze! I did not go around LA having rebound sex!” Eve was covering Trixie‘s ears while the little girl wanted to escape her hold. She could handle adult stuff. “And for the record, he did freak out. Like a lot,”

“If I’d known I would have come back a lot sooner. How did I miss that? It must have been hilarious,” Maze was laughing her ass off, making fun of the idea of Lucifer freaking out. As he’d say, thank dad she hadn’t been there.

“Baby, that’s not nice,” Eve reprimanded her girlfriend, grabbing her softly by the arm and pulling her closer to herself.

“It wasn’t funny, actually, it was worrying. I don’t know what I would have done if he hadn’t come around the idea,” Chloe took another look at the devil’s growing bruise around his left eye, growing worried about it. “Monkey, can you grab a bag of peas from the freezer to put on Lucifer’s eye?” Trixie nodded and ran quickly towards the kitchen so she could get what her mother had asked for.

“So... another half-angel baby. How did that happen?” Eve questioned, looking at Chloe and a Lucifer with a mixture of happiness and other feelings. Lucifer and she had broken up about five months ago, it was still rather fresh and she couldn’t help it but have moments of weakness where she just missed him. Now he was gone for good, it seems.

“You’re the first woman ever, you should know about that,” Lucifer said with no intention of making her feel bad.

“Oh, I didn’t mean that part,” Eve laughed nervously. “Just... you know... the whole angels are sterile and they can’t have children thing,”

“We think it’s because, as I’ve recently learned, I’m a miracle,” Chloe spoke, rubbing her tummy still. The babies were still moving but not half as strongly as before. “And since I make Lucifer mortal, well... I might as well make him not sterile,”

“Yes, and it’s also not only one celestial baby,” Lucifer grabbed the bag of frozen peas Trixie offered him and placed it on his left eye. “There are two celestial babies,”

“I’m going to hope you’re talking about Charlie,” Maze was quick to say, opening up her eyes big and round.

“Well... with Charlie there’s three,” Lucifer said in his characteristic tone.

“You’re kidding,” Maze said.

“You’re having twins?! Oh, that’s awesome!” Eve said, and although she was happy for them, it still stung lightly in her heart. She had been where Chloe was before, not pregnant with the devil’s children but beside him, as his queen. “You know, why don’t we let these two sort their issues out and we have a chat? I’ve had twins before, maybe some of my experience can help,” right, because that woman there was the mother of the evil man Chloe almost married. Her life couldn’t honestly be crazier.

“That sounds like a good idea as long as these two don’t take it out on each other again,” Chloe agreed, giving Lucifer a stern look to get her point across. Eve did the same with Maze and when everything was sorted, Eve, Chloe, and Trixie made their way into the living room while Maze and Lucifer went to the backyard. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any more bruises later.

“You’ve had twins before? I understood that Cain was older than Abel... or that’s what they told me in school,” Chloe started once she was able to sit down on her couch. Eve followed and Trixie took a seat on the floor, watching them intently.

“Chloe, I had six kids. Three sons and three daughters,” well, Chloe had to say, Eve looked too damn good to have had six kids, even if it had been thousands of years ago. She could tell the first woman felt uncomfortable but she let her keep talking either way. “My first pregnancy was with twins, Cain and Aclima,”

“Right, the world’s first murderer and the man I almost married,” Chloe sighed, remembering how crazy it had been to her back then. Lucifer had warned her and she truly couldn’t understand how she hadn’t ended up with him. She would thank God but God is an asshole.

“Thank God you didn’t marry him. He was a bastard,” at that, Chloe opened her blue eyes widely. Everyone knew Cain had been awful but to hear his own mother say that? Her life couldn’t be weirder. “Then I had my sweet little Abel and his twin sister Awan,”

“So you had two consecutive sets of twins?” At that Eve nodded, feeling empowered. It had been a long time ago but she remembered how tough it had been back then. “I can’t even imagine what it must have been back then,”

“Well, the Garden of Eden had everything we needed and at the time Adam and I thought it was hard. Now I look back on it and I don’t know how I was able to go through that,” The first woman sighed, placing her hands on her crossed legs. “And Adam was never there, he was, and probably still is, a complete asshole,”

“And your other two children?” Chloe asked, truly curious about the history of it all.

“Those were singletons, thankfully. I had Seth after Cain murdered Abel; he was like a gift from God to us because Cain had taken Abel’s life, and much later came our last daughter Azura,” History always talked about Abel and Cain only, and now having someone who had been there telling her everything that happened was like a gift. The detective inside Chloe was rejoicing.

“You do know that Abel is in Hell, right? Lucifer told me so,”

“I know because we’ve never seen him in Heaven. Only Seth and Azura are there, my other four are down there, and I’m glad it happened that way,” Chloe could never fathom knowing that her children had been condemned to eternal damnation but then again, poor Eve had been made to be someone else’s wife, it was only logical.

After that, they kept talking for a while. Eve told her what to expect more or less about the delivery. Chloe probably wouldn’t be able to have a c-section because the babies might as well turn her into the woman of steel by the end of the pregnancy, so natural delivery was the way to go. What Eve told her hadn’t been very encouraging but then again, she had given birth four times in the middle of a garden so... in spite of the obvious differences, she had a pretty good idea of what to expect. When it came to half human half angel babies, well, Eve didn’t have much experience with that so it remained a mystery. It would be ideal to speak to Linda about it but Charlie had been born almost completely human, they didn’t know if that would be their case.

About an hour later Lucifer and Maze came inside and they had dinner together. They ordered tacos to respect Trixie’s tradition but not having made them themselves had been a little sad, it had taken the beauty out of the tradition.

All in all, they had a good time. It was amazing that Maze and Eve had come back into the picture and even if the demon and the devil still had issues to sort out, they would do so at their own time. They needed as many friends as they could get, and as of then, they were the happiest they had ever been.

What more could they ask for?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter I asked which were your top three most favorite Lucifer episodes but literally just one guy answered haha. If you want to tell me here, I’d really like to know. Mine are 3x15, 3x06 and 3x13 in that order!
> 
> Love you!!


	19. Chapter XIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, can someone tell me what the f-word is wrong with me? I meannnn, I said chapter 19 would take a while and here I am, uploading it three days later. I’m soooo gonna fail this semester at uni, I can already see it.
> 
> I’m in like a writing frenzy, I can’t stop, literally, which I guess is good for you but it’s terrible for my grades. I’m in a big “ugh” mode right now.
> 
> Anyways, little rant aside, THANK YOU for 12,5k+ hits and 600+ kudos! I really want to get the kudos count to our unholy number and we’re getting close! Keep up the commenting, I LOVE interacting with you all! You are the best!
> 
> As always, stay safe, take care of yourself and your loved ones!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Chloe honestly felt like time was slipping through her fingers at an alarming rate.

A month had gone by since Eve and Maze came back into everyone's lives, and things had been going so well that she was afraid thinking about it too much would just ruin it. Everyone was happy, everything was going as smoothly as ever and they were all just enjoying life as it was.

The detective had been cleared to start walking on her own two legs about two weeks ago and although she still didn't feel completely like herself, she was happy she didn't depend on the crutches to move from one place to another anymore. Being able to walk normally was something everyone took for granted and ever since she got shot she could see how awesome the human body was.

Regarding her pregnancy, you could say she had "popped" again. Her belly had gone from a cute and relatively normally sized pouch at the lower portion of her stomach to a huge pregnancy belly overnight. One night she had gone to sleep with no baby weight on her ribs and the next morning her belly came from right underneath her breasts, already making it hard to breathe. She wasn't uncomfortable, per se, but she could remember Trixie's pregnancy and that had happened much later on. She truly didn't know what she would be or feel like by term, if she ever made it there, that is.

The babies had started moving, like really moving. What used to be cute little kicks and bumps once in a while had become a full on kicking session. Lucifer was convinced they were fighting like MMA fighters did inside there; the kicks and movements being so strong they could be seen from the outside. Trixie was thrilled, of course, but Chloe not so much. Having grown so large so early on meant that the kicks to the ribs had arrived earlier as well. None were hard enough to leave her out of breath but they could still be pretty uncomfortable.

But she was so happy. She could complain all she wanted about having baby feet kicking her in the ribs, or the bladder —which usually meant she'd have to run to the bathroom ASAP—, about feeling like an overweight blue wale and not feeling like herself, yes, but the happiness those two little beings brought her was worth all the aches and pains pregnancy endured.

Everything was back to a new normal, one that tried to resemble how things were before Lucifer went to Hell, and it felt nice to have everything and everyone in sync.

Except for the devil himself, that is.

He had been having a lot of meetings at Lux as of late, and he was being pretty secretive about them, not even telling Maze what they were about. That was the only thing that was bothering Chloe, everything else spoke for itself. Lucifer was acting as if Chloe couldn't notice that he was sneaking out of work far more often than he used to, claiming to have urgent business at his club and such. For goodness sake, he was in a relationship with a detective, he should know better. If Chloe trusted him and herself a little bit less, she would think he was cheating on her, but he was far too in love and they had gone through so much together that she sincerely doubted that.

If that issue could be sorted they would be the happiest they had ever been since Lucifer came back, and that was saying a lot.

Back to the present day, Chloe woke up laying on her side, surrounded by black silk bed sheets and feeling like she had touched a piece of Heaven the night before. Thankfully, her sexual life hadn't diminished because she was pregnant; it had changed a bit but it was still just as pleasurable.

The sound of an unknown melody made it to her ears as she propped herself up on the king sized bed, being careful enough to cover herself up with the sheets surrounding her. She was alone, which was weird, she never woke up alone, but then again, the piano going off not too far away from her was a pretty telling sign that the devil had had an early morning. She looked over to where the grand piano was, catching a glimpse of a half naked, handsome devil running his fingers through the keys as he sipped on his usual glass of scotch.

She got up from the bed and wrapped the silk sheet around herself, covering her naked body up as she made her way towards the armchair in his bedroom; the place where he had left the dressing shirt he had worn the night before. She quickly dressed herself up in that, thankful that even at twenty four weeks pregnant with twins his shirts still fit her like dresses. Lucifer didn't even notice the movement in his room, far too focused in his tune to even take a look.

"Good morning, handsome," she walked up to him and stood right behind him, wrapping her arms around his torso to greet him. It was their day off, and they would surely enjoy it.

"My my, you slept in? Since when do you do that?" He turned his head around to place a chaste peck on her lips, moving to the right on the piano bench to make up some space for his love.

"It's my day off, therefore yours, and I have two and a half pounds of baby inside me. I think I'm allowed to sleep in," she walked around the bench and sat beside her favorite devil, keeping her hand on his as she did so. "You know, they get really active whenever they hear you play,"

They had proven a couple of weeks before that the babies seemed to like piano music and hearing their dad sing, it made them go crazy inside Chloe's stomach, kicking and rolling strongly.

"They're moving?" He asked, bringing his hand to Chloe's stomach without asking for permission, immediately feeling one of his children kick. As time went on and their heart rates became lower, it became more difficult for him to tell which one of the babies he was hearing.

"Like crazy. They're your greatest fans," the devil chuckled at that, bringing his hand back to the keys and playing softly, as if he wanted to get his point across.

"I've been thinking..." he said, taking a hold of his scotch glass once again. "Babies need things, right?"

"Things... like what?" Chloe asked confusedly, bringing her hands up to her hair to tame it a bit and tie it in a knot.

"Clothing, furniture, a room for themselves, maybe toys? Just like the spawn has a room and toys of her own, right?" His reasoning was tentative and wary, going around all his conjectures. He had never been around children before, the source of his thoughts had been entirely intuitive.

"They will need that, yes," Chloe said, aware of his lack of knowledge or understanding of the matter. "Maybe not a room, at least not for a couple of months. It'll be much easier to have them sleeping in our room for a while. Babies tend to not sleep through the night,"

"It's good to know we're ahead of awful months of a lack of sleep, I'm assuming,"

"You're assuming right. If it's tough with just one baby I can't even imagine what's it like with two," she brought her hands to her stomach, softly caressing it as she felt her little ones roll around. "Why are you asking, are you worried about that?"

"No, well... you're getting closer to delivering them and I'm pretty sure we have none of the things they need," Lucifer brought his eyes back to the keys as he softly played an unknown melody that almost sounded like a lullaby.

"There's still time, but if it bothers you so much we could go on a shopping spree for baby things, if you wanted," Lucifer remained silent at that, concentrated on the tune of his song and playing it beautifully. It was almost like a spell; so soft and lulling. "You know... another thing babies need are names," Chloe suggests tentatively, having wanted to bring up the subject ever since her mother had questioned her about the twin's names.

"Don't they come with them?" Lucifer asked innocently, bringing his playing to a halt. Chloe left out a little giggle at the devil's innocent assumption. “We angels came with them,”

"Of course they don't! It would be so much easier if they did," Lucifer was so clueless when it came to babies that it was bordering on just too endearing. "We have to pick at least one for each one of them. I'd like them to have middle names, though,"

"So we have to agree on four names? Us? Agreeing in something? This is going to be tougher than I thought," Chloe cracked another laugh at his words, realizing just how deeply in love with him she was.

"I seriously don't know how we work so well together when we can’t agree in almost anything. Our lives used to be so different before this,"

"I know... it still shocks me, to this day, that you have accepted me and just... you're literally carrying two antichrists in there," he pointed at her stomach. "I put those two in there,"

"Hey!" She smacked him on the shoulder. "They're not antichrists! They're babies! Besides, the antichrist is the child of the devil, but you've proven yourself to be a rather wonderful, caring, loving angel. I'm not so sure you're the devil anymore," her voice was so soft in those last words, making the devil’s heart flutter in joy.

"Oh, detective, you flatter me!" He tried to play it cool but her words had really gotten to him, they had hit too close to home.

"The night Pierce killed Charlotte, when we were out by the balcony and you kept telling me that you were the devil but you couldn't show me—" The devil interrupted her, knowing where she was going with that.

"—you told me that I wasn't, not to you," he completed the rest of her sentence, remembering all too well how nice it felt hearing her say those words to him, feeling her feather-soft touch as she leaned closer and kissed him.

"And you still aren't. Not to me," she brought her right hand up to cup his left cheek, forcing him to look into her eyes. "I meant that back then, and I still mean it now, even with all the awful things I did to you in the middle,"

"Everything I went through... every bad thing I did, for eons... punishing the guilty, punishing myself," he sighed, pressing his cheek against Chloe's palm and enjoying her touch. He felt like she was her anchor, holding him in his rightful place. "My devil face, my devil form can only go away if I manage to forgive myself in a level... In a way that I just can't say 'I don't want to be the devil anymore' and it just goes away,"

"And that's okay, baby," Chloe stroked his cheek with her thumb. "You've gone through things no human can even imagine, it's gonna take some time before you can forgive yourself fully, and that's okay," she grabbed his right hand and put it in her stomach once again, doing everything possible to ground him. "Just know that, to me, you're not that monster you sometimes feel like you are and, to them, you'll be the best father and the best angel they could have ever asked for," he smiled at her words, looking down to the floor and actually blushing. He had hit the jackpot with Chloe Decker.

"Around the time Cain first arrived, I got my wings back but lost my devil face, and I... At the time I hated it, I was blaming my dad and kept cutting them off time after time but they kept growing back... How I wish I could go back to that," he stroked his thumb over the fabric of his shirt, feeling the movements beneath Chloe's skin.

"You don't have to," she softly brought the hand on his cheek back to her realm, leaving the one on her belly on its rightful place. "You have both things now, it isn't one or the other anymore," she was so proud of him, of how strong he was for having gone through so much. "It only takes time, Lucifer, and by the looks of it you have a hell of a lot of it,"

"Muffin, I'm going to ask you to leave puns to me from now on, okay?" They laughed loudly at that, breaking the seriousness and liberating the weight of the conversation they were having.

They played Heart and Soul a couple of times, reminiscing about their first 'moment' as it was. The whole thing could be resumed into Lucifer making fun of Chloe for only knowing that song and correcting her whenever she placed her fingers in the wrong keys, promising he would teach her how to properly play the piano and telling her about all the human gods of piano that had been his students over the centuries. Mozart, Bach, Tchaikovsky, among others were the ones that wowed Chloe the most. It never got old for her, she loved hearing about the past from the perspective of a man who had seen almost everything. Even if he had been in Hell for the longest part of history, it was still awesome hearing what he'd seen and done centuries ago.

Their lazy late morning got interrupted by a text, making Lucifer's phone screen light up and drawing his attention completely to it. How he had lived without a phone for the greatest chunk of the time he'd been on Earth was a mystery.

"What is it?" Chloe asked, knowing that it probably had something to do with everything that was bothering her as of late. He smiled down to the phone, texting a quick response and placing his smartphone back on top of the piano.

"Just a little something I've been planning. A surprise," he says smugly, looking a lot happier than before the message arrived.

"A surprise?" And honestly, she wasn't surprised. He had done surprises before, she was just wondering to who now? Whose birthday was coming up next? "For whom?"

"Why, you, of course," he said as if it were something obvious, standing up from the bench and walking towards his bedroom in his full, almost naked glory. "Come on, get dressed, we've got somewhere to be,"

"Lucifer, you know I hate surprises," she whined, standing up herself and walking towards the bedroom, following his footsteps as he dressed up in his perfect attire.

"You didn't seem to hate that time I took you to prom," he said as he put a pair of black slacks on, choosing to go with a classic look.

"For starters, I didn't know you had a surprise in for me, otherwise I would have been super uncomfortable," she argued but she picked up her discarded jeans, noticing that it had already become difficult to crouch down and pick things up from the floor. "Now, seriously, what is it?"

"I'm not telling you, muffin," the smile on his face was so smug it made Chloe die in curiosity but also punch it off his face. Hormones during pregnancy could be weird.

"Really? You're not telling me? Then I'm assuming it's something I would definitely say no to if you had asked me," she crossed her arms on top of her chest, dressed in black, maternity jeans and Lucifer's oversized shirt only.

"I've been planning this for a while, I'm not spoiling it now, darling," he buttoned up a perfectly straight, black dressing shirt, looking at Chloe as muscle memory took over.

"I hate it when you get like that," she mumbled while picking up her bra, thinking about putting it on. An idea slipped through her mind at that.

"Oh, I know you do," he answered, ending his sentence a little perplexed by the sight in front of him. His detective was slowly undoing the buttons on his shirt one by one, going from the lowest button and up to the top but skipping the one over her naked breasts. Pregnancy had its perks and when it came to cup size, it definitely increased it. "What are you doing? Not that I'm complaining,"

"Messing with you," she undid the last button, the one over her breasts but quickly turned around, pulling the shirt off her shoulders and letting it fall to the floor. She, as sexily and provocatively as she possibly could, finished dressing up, all with her back towards the devil, turning around once she was fully dressed to find him gaping his mouth open.

"That, right there, is pure evil," he told her with narrowed eyes, pointing at her with his index finger.

"You won't tell me about the surprise, I had to do something," she strides towards him and stands in front of him, doing the last four buttons of his shirt before planting a chaste kiss on his lips. "I'm a woman of action, you should know that by now,"

"You little tease," he smiled, losing his smug tone and trailing behind her towards the bathroom.

They brushed their teeth and put their hair in order together, all while Chloe questioned him as best as she could about the surprise but the devil, as wise as he was, said nothing. He, of course, took his sweet time to get his signature quiff up, using a blow dryer, professional hair dressing brushes and more hair product that Chloe had ever owned in her thirty five years of life. It was so much like him and the scene was so domestic; if Chloe weren't so vexed by the surprise she would have enjoyed it far more.

They took the Corvette and headed out Lucifer's building. The devil suggested, and insisted, on having Chloe wear a blindfold but the detective stood firmly on her stance and refused. She would not wear a blindfold, no way. She hated surprises far too much to add a blindfold to the mixture.

The drive was a rather normal one, and of course, Chloe asked questions and complained like the good detective she was, trying to figure out where they were heading. Parachute jumping, rafting, or anything too dangerous had been ruled out already because of her condition, but there were still so many things it could be. Lucifer was truly unpredictable.

Twenty minutes into the drive Lucifer pulled into a street she found familiar, probably from a case or form having to go somewhere near it.

"I know this street," she said at one moment, looking at how by her right there were humongous mansions and modern houses and by her left was the immensity of the Pacific Ocean, making the drive a beautiful one to say the least.

"You do. We had a case once, and we had to drive up to a winery up north," Lucifer answers her, focused on his driving and on feeling the salty air on his skin.

"Of course! When Maze was framed by that wealthy woman for bringing in her son!" She realized, remembering the case all too well, how she had to talk Maze out of killing that woman.

"Everyone said it was a really romantic drive, and it is, indeed,"

"Yes, but Lucifer, what are we doing here?" She questioned again, hoping the last one would be the one. Lucifer just smiled at her with a hint of smugness.

"You're finding out just about... right now," he pulled over right then, parking the car in front of one of the crazy mansions that took part in the row of fancy houses up the street.

"Lucifer, what is this?" He opened the door on the driver's side and walked over to the passenger's, opening Chloe's door just like any gentleman would.

"This, my dear," he brought her up to her feet, pointing at the humongous house before them. "Is our new home,"

"Excuse me, our new what?" Chloe said completely speechless, looking at the building before them.

The house in question wasn't one of the bigger ones from the bunch, but it looked to be so expensive and big that it took Chloe's breath away. It was a two story family home, and from what she could tell it had a garage big enough for two cars, who knows how many rooms, and the prettiest front garden and entrance she had ever seen. The exterior walls were all in exposed bricks that looked to be made out of rocks, and it had a lot of gable roofs, all in different sizes, with darker grey roof tiles.

The house was so elegant and yet so warm. In comparison to all the other houses down the road it was the one that looked the coziest, the one that screamed 'family home' the most. It was a personification of her and Lucifer in a building, and Chloe wouldn't say that, but she loved it.

"Welcome home, sweetheart," Lucifer brought her out of her trance, placing a hand on the small of her back and walking her up the stone path leading to the entrance. "I know we aren't officially living together but we also are... in a way. So I thought, why not make it official?"

"Lucifer, we can't afford the rent of a house like this. I mean, do you see the neighborhood we're in? The views this has? I'm a cop, I don't get paid much," she argued as she let herself be guided by her love.

"That's exactly why I bought it," he was talking so casually about it, like it wasn't a big deal. It was a huge deal.

"You did what?! You bought this?" She stopped on her tracks, halfway there to the entrance. She truly couldn't believe it.

"Look, darling, I have many properties, as you well know, but none of them could suit a family life, with you know... children around," he placed a hand on her bump to bring emphasis to his words. "It took me a while to find one that would accommodate us and three children while being comfortable, and well... 'us' enough, but then I came across this one,"

"I... I have no words," she looked at the house again and found that it seemed much larger up close than it did when they were standing by the side of the road.

"That's exactly the reaction I wanted," he grabbed her by her hand, interlocking their fingers as he continued walking towards their new place. "There's a lot of things left to do still, but I couldn't wait any longer to show it to you,"

"You are unbelievable," she said in awe, watching everything's round her as if it were her first time in Disneyland.

"Regina, thank you so much for meeting us with such short notice," he greeted the woman standing on the front of the double door, already open for them to enter the beautiful home. She had blonde hair and fair skin, and she was dressed like any business woman would be in LA: patterned shirt and a plain pencil skirt, paired with five inch high heels.

"No problem, Mr. Morningstar, it's my pleasure," she shook his hand, giving him a look Chloe knew all too well.

"This is Chloe Decker, my partner and significant other," Chloe awkwardly shook her hand with her right one, holding on tightly to Lucifer's with her left one.

"Pleasure to meet you, Chloe, I've heard a lot about you. Congratulations on your twins!" Everyone with a small amount of sensibility could tell she was being fake, but then again, she probably owed Lucifer a favor and that's why he bought the house from her agency or wherever she worked at in the first place.

"Thank you," she replied awkwardly.

"The keys to the house, Mr. Morningstar, all yours," she handed him a key ring with quite a lot of keys in it, which Lucifer took gracefully. "Please, come on in, I'll show you inside,"

"Of course, just let me..." and as smoothly as ever, and as if Chloe hadn't already gained twenty pounds with her pregnancy, he lifted her up into his arms bridal style and crossed the house's threshold with her in them.

"Lucifer, what are you doing, we're not married!" She complained while laughing, actually finding it amusing rather than embarrassing that he had lifted her up and was walking into the house, holding her like she weighed nothing.

"Rest assured, muffin, we'll do this again when you become Chloe Morningstar,"

And a knot formed on Chloe's throat. I wasn't unpleasant, it was just... she had never thought about marriage, she never thought Lucifer would even want that. He was all about free will and that was the very same thing that got him kicked out of his home and turned into the devil, why would he want to get married? Ever since her marriage with Dan failed and her marriage with Pierce —thankfully— never took place, the idea of becoming legally bound to someone had never crossed her mind again. Maybe she was meant to be on a stable relationship, maybe moving in together with her significant other, but she didn't really think her happy ending would ever be through marriage again, and that made her sad.

Knowing that Lucifer was thinking about their future didn't make her sad, or hesitant, or uncomfortable. It actually made her happy, really happy that her dream of having a marriage that worked could actually happen. Nothing was set, of course, neither of them had popped the question —honestly she thought that it wouldn't happen anytime soon— but just knowing that Lucifer wanted a life with her, that he wanted to put a ring on it, it made her heart burst in happiness and just a clump of emotions she couldn't describe but were all extremely positive.

"Did you just propose to me?" She teased him, swallowing all her emotions and trying to get the butterflies in her stomach to calm down. Maybe they were baby kicks, she couldn't really tell.

"I'm afraid I haven't, darling, you'll have to wait a little longer for that one," Chloe laughed it off and lowered herself down to the floor, taking in how breathtakingly beautiful their new home was.

"Okay, so, we're standing at the foyer right now, to our right there's a study," Regina cleared her throat and started explaining, pointing to the opened double door on their right. Even the foyer was spacious, Chloe couldn't even imagine how the rest of the house was.

“We could make that a library. I have lots of books at the penthouse we could put in there,” Lucifer adds as they enter the room.

The study was as large as the master bedroom in Chloe’s house was, and it had a fucking fireplace in it. It was already lined with dark wooden shelves and it was just so overwhelming thinking of their future in that house.

“Lucifer, this is huge, how are we going to fill all of this up?” Chloe asked, taking a look at her surroundings.

“Well, you never know. Maybe you’ll have more little ones in the future, and this house is certainly capable of holding a large family,” Regina said with a cynical smile, looking down at Chloe’s stomach. The room remained in an uncomfortable silence; Lucifer and Chloe very aware that these babies they were expecting would be their first and their last. “Okay, so, moving on, that’s the staircase that leads to the second floor but I’d like to go through the first floor thoroughly,” they exited the study and walked forward, walking past what seemed to be a closet and into the huge living room. “This is the living room. Plenty of space for any kind of furniture you’d like and I’d recommend it making it so it faces the south,”

In the living room there was the largest fireplace Chloe had ever seen, it was so large it was almost her height, and there was a freaking crystal chandelier hanging from the high ceilings. How could that house be real, seriously?

“I’m sure your people will do a fantastic job furnishing our home,” Lucifer added, standing closer to Chloe. Hearing that was a serious red flag to the detective.

“Sorry, we’re making this our home and we’re not going to be the ones furnishing it?” Chloe asked him in a low voice, ignoring Regina.

“Of course we will, darling. We’ll pick everything, they will be the ones to assemble everything and get the house ready for us. I would never choose to do something you didn’t like, not even picking a sofa,” that managed to calm Chloe down slightly, but then another question rose to surface.

“Regina, can you give us a moment, please?”

“Of course, Miss Decker,” the blonde woman walked away; the clicking of her heels being the only sound resonating on the empty house.

“Is there a problem, love?” Lucifer asked. He had so much excitement written all over his face from being in their new home with Chloe that she couldn’t be too harsh. She didn’t want to break his heart.

“This thing of... picking the furniture and letting this agency set it all up... are we doing this with all the rooms?” She asked; an insecure tone tinting her voice.

“Well, if you wanted then yes, of course,” he answered. “Why are you asking?”

“Well, I don’t know... I maybe wanted to set up the babies’ nursery by ourselves? Maybe with Trixie’s room, too? If she gets one, of course, this is your house—” she started rambling but Lucifer cut her off.

“—this is _our home._ It’s under both, mine and your name, you can do as you please in here, Chloe,” Lucifer brought his hands to gently grab her by the arms, offering her comfort. He could notice how overwhelmed she was. “And if you want us to set the spawns rooms by ourselves, then so be it,” she nodded, thankful that the small things that made everything special could still be done by themselves.

“Thank you, yeah, that’s what I want. But wait, how did you manage to get the house under both our names?” She asked, and then she regretted asking. The man she was in love with had connections all over LA. “Never mind, forget I asked,” Lucifer gave her his signature smile, understanding the conversation was over and walking over to Regina with a hand on the lower portion of his love’s back.

Regina kept showing them the house for about an hour and a half after that. It was really big, luminous and spacious, and they had to discuss which room would be used for what thing and get around knowing their new place. It was overwhelming to say the least.

Getting around showing them the backyard, Chloe gave a loud snort. Of course, Lucifer had to choose a home that had a fucking huge pool in it with a water slide on one of its sides. She knew Trixie would love it, but so many concerns came to her mind. They would need to baby proof the entirety of that house, maybe even the chandeliers hanging from the ceilings if the babies were to be born with wings. There were a lot of things they needed to do to the house, so it was then that it dawned on Chloe that they wouldn’t be moving in right away. That calmed her down a

Going up to the second floor, they found yet another fireplace in the excessively large master bedroom, along with three other rooms,all with walk in closets, and a common bathroom apart from the master bathroom.

“You have a thing for fireplaces, don’t you?” Chloe teased him when they got there, counting three fireplaces in total inside the house. 

In the end they chose the room right next to the master bedroom to be the future nursery. It was far too large for a nursery but it would do just fine because it was near their room, which was what mattered. The room right beside that one would be Trixie’s bedroom, and she would be thrilled to have such a large space to play and dance and do whatever she pleased in there.

They ended up telling Regina that all the rooms in the house would be furnished by the agency —with their picks on absolutely everything— except for the nursery and Trixie’s room. They would find a little while, maybe a day off, to get together and set both rooms up the three of them, counting it as family quality time.

Chloe’s head was left spinning by the end of it, so overwhelmed by everything that had to do with the home and the decorations and the furniture, but ultimately she was so happy. Literally, the only thing she would change to the house was the size, everything else screamed ‘Deckerstar’ from every angle, which was what she loved the most about it.

They set a date for a meeting to discuss all the furnishing and decorations before Lucifer and Chloe leave to Chloe’s rather small home. After seeing all of that, her small house looked even tinier. Then it dawned on her.

They would move out. They would start a life together, they were having children, plural, together. It was amazing to think so, for goodness sake, she came as close to a wedding proposal as it could ever get that day.

Yeah, she still hated surprises, but she would admit she had been blown away in a nice way by that one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of Luci’s surprise?? I think it was about time they got a bigger place. Fitting three kids and two adults in Chloe’s shoebox of an apartment would’ve been tough.
> 
> Can you recommend me some Deckerstar fics to encourage my procrastinating towards uni? Which ones are your favorites?


	20. Chapter XX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can somebody please just take my phone away from me? How can I write so much!? I literally updated just yesterday and wrote all 6,7k words of this chapter in one sitting today. 
> 
> I have a test on Saturday and all I can do is write Deckerstar fluff, what is wrong with me?
> 
> Rant aside, I hope you like it! You’ll finally find out the names of the babies in this chapter, I’m so excited! I loved how they turned out!
> 
> Now, I won’t promise anything but next chapter might really take a while. I know no one takes me seriously when I say this but if I’m not mistaken chapter 21 and 22 are case chapters and I still have to build them up. I have a feeling you’ll really like them, though!
> 
> Let me know what you think about the names/story/anything down by the comments, I LOVE reading them and answering!
> 
> I love you all so much, thank you for 13,3k+ hits, it means the world to me, honestly!
> 
> Stay safe!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

"Okay, care to explain what we're doing here exactly?" Lucifer was seriously the only one inside that store who was dressed in a three-piece suit; everyone else in there had opted for something more comfortable.

"You know what kind of store this is, right?" Chloe asked him as they entered the shop, already fearing that Trixie would just run towards the first thing that got her excited.

"Darling, of course I know what IKEA is. Doesn't answer the question 'what are we doing here?', though,"

Three weeks had gone by since Lucifer had gone and bought a house out of nowhere, and now they had to do something about that overly priced property they owned. They had already gone to a meeting with the agency to choose how to decorate the rooms they had chosen to, and although overwhelming, having someone else setting up the furniture and decorations to their new home had taken a weight off their shoulders. It had already been two weeks since their meeting and for the most part, the house should be almost ready for them to move in.

However, since they had chosen to do Trixie and the twins' rooms by themselves, it was an understatement that they had to do a little bit of shopping.

"We are going to be buying things for Trixie's room and the nursery," Chloe explained simply, holding on tighter to Trixie's hand once all the colorful decorations and furniture came into their visual field.

"Why couldn't we do that through the internet and get them delivered to the house?" The devil suggests, finding himself out of place. “We could have gotten much better quality there,”

"Yeah, we could have done that, but doing it like this is so much fun! And it truly isn’t worth it spending huge amounts of money in things that are going to be used for not too long,” well, she had a point there. Babies grew fast, in about two years they would have to buy furniture again.

It was unbelievable but the babies had gone into a growth spurt; her belly having grown a lot in size very rapidly. It was truly a miracle how she didn't have stretch marks when at twenty-seven weeks along she looked to be about thirty-one or thirty-two. She had almost four pounds of baby inside her, which obviously made her look to be further along than she actually was. She was so happy though, she couldn't complain.

"And actually, I'm going to let you pay without fussing about it," Chloe added, grabbing him by the arm and heading into the baby section.

"Okay, now I'm really worried. What's gotten into you?" He asked, completely in disbelief.

"Well, you can afford it and I've been buying clothing and stuff for the babies on my own. Bringing twins into the world is a two people job," Chloe shrugged her shoulders, giving in to Lucifer's constant need to provide and pay for absolutely everything. If it were up to him, her salary as an LAPD detective would remain completely untouched, but in his defense, he just liked to spoil his girls a little bit too much.

"I'm seriously concerned this pregnancy has changed you too much,"

"Mom, look at that crib! It's so cute!" Trixie freed herself from her mother's grasp and ran towards an all-white crib with thin wooden bars and small detailing on the edges.

"Just enjoy it while it lasts," she said, giving her conversation with the devil some closure. "That's beautiful, baby!" She praised her daughter, waddling over to where she was standing with the devil following close by.

"Oh, and look at those, too!" She pointed towards a crib that had cabinets and a changing table incorporated as well; all the cabinets were in varying shades of blue. "We can get one for my brother and one for my sister! A blue one and a pink one!" She was so excited it was endearing. She couldn't wait to set the nursery up, to be a big sister, to have something to do with with everything ‘big-sisterhood’ entailed.

"Monkey, that kind of crib is for when the nursery is small. The babies' room is going to be bigger," Chloe says, forgetting just one tiny, little, baby detail thing. Trixie, however, had been too fast for her to take another course of action.

"But aren't we making Maze's old room the nursery? That room isn't too big," and, of course, that tiny little detail Chloe had forgotten was that they still hadn't told her that they would be moving out of their place. Honestly, with everything going on in general, they didn't want her to have the weight of moving out of her home on top of that, so they chose to keep it under wraps for a while. Guess it was finally the time to tell her they wouldn't be living in Chloe's rented shoebox of an apartment anymore.

"Actually, baby..." Chloe hesitated, going over to where her daughter was standing. "Lucifer and I have a surprise for you," she hoped the 'surprise' approach would make her reaction towards moving out a better one, though Trixie had proven herself to be a resilient little thing.

"Really? What is it?!" She asked excitedly, not caring that she was in the middle of IKEA.

"A couple of weeks ago, Lucifer bought us a house," she said softly, lowering her voice and looking into her daughter's eyes.

"You really did?" She looked up to the devil from where she was standing, a mixture of awe and surprise painting the entirety of her little face.

"I did, and I have a feeling you'll like it a lot, spawn," Lucifer answered, smiling down at the little urchin.

"Lucifer thought that since there's going to be five of us very soon, we might as well move into a bigger home," Chloe wished she could crouch down and be at eye level with her daughter as she spoke. If she ever dared to do that she was afraid she wouldn't be able to stand back up, so she just had to choose not to. "What do you think? Do you like the idea?"

"I love it!" She said excitedly, rushing over towards Lucifer and wrapping him in a tight hug. The ten-year-old was just like a little ball of excitement. "Thank you so much, Lucifer!" She thanked him as the devil picked her up, settling her in his right hip.

"You're welcome, spawn," she had an ear to ear smile painting her face, she was just so happy.

"Do you already know which one is my room? How's the house?" The excitement was palpable in her voice.

"We have picked a room for you and you'll love it, it's huge!" Trixie's grin only grew wider. "And we may or may not have a backyard pool,"

"You're kidding!" Oh man, that little girl was something.

"You know, she's not," Lucifer added to the conversation, starting to walk down the aisles with the little girl comfortably sitting on his hip.

"But mommy, I don't know how to swim," her excitement died down just a little.

"That's not an issue, I'll teach you. You'll learn in no time,"

Dealing with Trixie when she was in such a high was a two people job, indeed. She just spent all the IKEA shopping spree talking about all the things she wanted to do to her new room and what the babies' nursery should look like. She was convinced they should paint half of it pink and half blue, and decorate each side according to gender stereotypes. Needless to say, neither Lucifer or Chloe liked that idea, but they didn't have the heart to tell her off because she was just a little girl; she reproduced what society taught her.

They ended up buying more furniture than Lucifer anticipated, which made him realize just how many things babies seemed to need. There were things he didn't even know what they would use them for, but they added them to their cart either way because the package said it was for babies. It went against what Chloe had originally told him —not to spend too much because babies grow out of everything really quickly—, but he just wanted to be sure his children had everything.

In between all those things were two cribs with their respective mattresses —both pretty square and generic-looking, in a beautiful golden oak color that fitted the scheme they wanted the nursery to be—, two changing tables, two rocking chairs, and one large, tall closet. The nursery was the only room in the whole house that didn't have a walk-in closet, so they needed the closet to keep their clothing and stuff. They picked up a white, fluffy rug, large enough that it would cover the biggest part of the floor, a couple of shelves —all in that beautiful golden oak color—, two gender-neutral baby mobiles and a set of different sized wicker baskets. The smaller ones could be used for diapers and wipes while the bigger ones were large enough to work as laundry baskets. They wanted the room to be generic, gender-neutral.

They also picked up two bassinets to keep in their room for the first few months, and also two Moises baskets to have downstairs for when they were hanging out there. They would need a lot more stuff but as of then, they had enough.

For Trixie's bedroom they got her a full-size bed, a rug just as big and fluffy as the one for the nursery but in pink —she had a thing for pink lately—, a baby pink tufted headboard, a veil to hang from the ceiling so it would drape over her bed —per her insistent request—, an L shaped desk and a desk chair and one of the biggest toy bins Chloe had ever seen. It was wooden and it looked to be large enough to fit against one of the room's excessively large walls. Needless to say, the little girl was thrilled about all the purchases they had done for her room. The thing she was most excited about, though, were the fairy lights she had coaxed Lucifer into buying, loving already how they would look in her new room. Chloe ended up liking Trixie's idea so much she picked up a pair to put in the nursery as well.After setting a delivery date for all the furniture and things they couldn't take to the house themselves, they parted towards their new home, which was almost completely ready for them to move into. Whenever Trixie's room was complete they would be able to move in, having plenty of time to finish the nursery once they were settled in. The agency furnishing the home had done an amazing job at it, being fast and efficient, just like Lucifer liked things to be done.

The drive to the new house could be resumed in Trixie asking an insurmountable amount of questions about it; how large it was, where it was, what was the size of the pool, whether she got to have an en-suite bathroom or not —she did, by the way— and just question after question. They tried to not tell her too much so she would be wowed when she saw it, but it was difficult to sit in a car with a ten-year-old practically interrogating them.

Upon their arrival, Trixie got radio silent, staring at the house in awe. Both of them could tell she already loved it, only from having seen her look at it from inside the car.

"Welcome home, sweetie," Chloe told her as she got off the car, opening the door to her and letting the little girl take in the beauty of her new home.

"We're going to be living here?!" She exclaimed, immediately running towards the stone path and the flowers planted on the sides of it. It gave the rather serious look of the building itself a touch of color and Chloe just loved it.

"We can move in as soon as your bedroom is finished," Lucifer added, walking around the car so he could stand by Chloe's side and watch the little girl explode in happiness before them.

"You have to be kidding, this house is amazing!" She ran up the stone path leading up to the front door, eager to get inside and see how it was. Lucifer and Chloe followed at a slower rate; Chloe waddling her way up thanks to the extra weight on her abdomen.

"Why, thank you. I do believe I have awesome taste in housing, decorations, alcohol, and women," Lucifer praised himself, opening the front doors to their home as soon as he got to where the little urchin was.

"Oh. My. God. This place is huge!" Her eyes were so round and big, trying to take in the beauty of their new home. Chloe and Lucifer were pretty amazed themselves, having only seen the house when empty before. Now that it was furnished it looked to be a lot more cozy, giving off more of a family home kind of vibe.

Trixie didn't give the library's open doors a second glance and stormed right into the living room, marveling herself with the beauty of it all.

They had chosen the living room to be decorated in navy blue, light grey, and white, contrasting with the slightly off white color that was on the walls. There was a ginormous L shaped sofa facing the fireplace, along with two love seats and a coffee table, all on top of the softest white rug ever. There was the biggest flat-screen Trixie had ever seen hung on top of the tallest fireplace she had ever seen. She could fit perfectly inside of it from how big it was. For decorations they had gone with some plants here and there, bringing a pop of color into the scheme.

"This looks beautiful, Lucifer. I didn't think it would look this good," Chloe commented as they stood on the end of the hallway, taking a look at their place. "I can't believe all of this is ours,"

"I would start working on that, sweetheart," he pulled her in by her almost nonexistent waist to place a sweet kiss on her plump lips, savoring every last bit of it.

"Can you two stop being disgusting and show me around? I can't wait to see my room!" Trixie said, which made them pull away from their kiss with a small giggle. They loved that little girl so much.

They showed her the open kitchen right to the left of the living room. It was all done in white and gray and with marble, with beautiful, shiny, dark oak wooden floors underneath. The wall to the further left was lined with a long counter with cabinets underneath, shaped like an L that stopped at a door that went to the laundry room, bathroom, and garage. On the longer side of the counter were the stove, three different kinds of electrical ovens stacked on top of each other, and a double door grey fridge, making the kitchen look huge. There was a big kitchen island in the middle as well that had the sink to the left and facing the counters and had four light gray stools to its right.

"This kitchen is awesome!" Everything in here is awesome!"

They proceeded to show her the open dining room that was ahead and to the left; a black, rectangular glass table lined with six dining chairs in white to make some contrast, all over a light brown rug and with some plants on the surroundings to make the place feel more colorful and bright.

Going up to the second floor, they briefly took a look at the master bedroom. Of course, when picking the bed Lucifer had to pick a California king-sized bed and place it right smack in the middle of the room. There were two armchairs and a small little reading area in front of the fireplace, as well as a flatscreen hung above it. The walls were all painted in white but had beautiful paintings bringing touches of warm color to the room, making it feel cozy despite how unnecessarily large it was.

"Okay, so, since we're going to be painting and making a mess out of ourselves, I thought ahead and brought some clothing that could be discarded afterwards," Lucifer handed Chloe a bag he had been holding ever since they got out of the car. Chloe pulled brand new clothing out from it that, although it wasn't as expensive as the rest of Lucifer's wardrobe was, it was still within what she would consider a high price... and Lucifer was telling them they would throw them away.

"Lucifer, these are brand new, we can't just throw them away," Chloe complained, going through the bag and seeing tag after tag.

"Oh, we can, darling. It's no big deal. Now, chop chop, go get changed," reluctantly and feeling like she had no say on the matter, Chloe took a pair of gray sweatpants and a large tee shirt with her to change, locking herself up in the master bedroom. Lucifer handed Trixie a similar outfit and the little girl chose the bathroom to change, while he chose to go into the nursery.

The floor was already lined with plastic to protect it and the cans of paint were waiting for them to start on their bricolage Sunday, which made starting the job so much easier.

As he waited for his girls to come into the room he neatly and carefully folded his three-piece suit and put it into the bag, making sure there would be enough space for Chloe and the offspring's clothing as well.

"Lucifer, I really don't want to ruin clothing that's brand new," Chloe said as she came into the nursery, rocking her sweatpants and plain tee shirt like any model would.

"My my, you look beautiful even in painting attire," he complimented her, ignoring her concern for the discarding of the clothing. "I should have picked overalls, those would have been much more appropriate,"

"Lucifer, I think you got my size wrong," in came Trixie, wearing a pair of sweatpants and a pink tee-shirt that were clearly too big for her, making her mother and step devil laugh from the cuteness the image inspired.

"Oh, don't blame me! I just picked the ones that were for ten years olds," he excused himself while Chloe went to her aid, rolling up her sleeves.

"Will you come here and roll up the hem of her pants? Everything that's on the floor or two feet above it doesn't exist for me anymore," the devil did as he was told, laughing at Chloe's commentary. Truth to be told, she couldn't remember the last time she saw her own feet. Once the hem of Trixie's sweatpants was rolled up so she wouldn't step on them anymore, the devil turned to face his girls.

"So well, what do you say we get our hands dirty?"

And with that they started painting the room, wasting more paint in teasing each other and searching for ways to make each other laugh than actually painting the room. Thankfully, there were more liters of paint than what they needed, otherwise they would've been short of it.

They painted the room in a beautiful, light, sand-like color, all against Trixie's wishes of doing half and half pink and blue. The argument against her had been that it would have been too difficult to make an even line between the colors rather than telling her they didn't stand for sexist stereotypes, not wanting to go into that territory just yet. However, they managed to make her smile when they told her they would be putting up signs with their names on them and that those could be in pink and blue, just like she wanted them to be.

It took them about three z xx hours just to do the first coat, that was how much fun they were having while painting. Getting paint on each other's face, hair, or clothes was far too funny for the little urchin, and the two adults also found it quite amusing themselves.

It was only when they started on their second coat that the excitement died down and they started painting in sync; the devil humming a song neither of his girls knew but found very pleasing.

"You know..." Trixie's voice was the first one to break that newly-found balance of noise and tranquility. "I'm tired of calling the babies 'the babies', they should have names,"

Chloe and Lucifer shared a look, acknowledging the fact that they really hadn't talked much about baby names. They hadn't talked about baby names, period. It was high time the topic came up during a conversation.

"Well, at least we have a lot of names ruled out already. I refuse to name any of my children after a biblical character," Lucifer commented, going over the wall with the window with his brayer.

"I agree with that," Chloe says, understanding where Lucifer was coming from. Most of the more mainstream names came from the Bible or something that had to do with religion. They just knew they wouldn't be naming their baby boy 'Michael' or their baby girl 'Mary'. "Do any of you have any ideas?" Chloe asked, bringing her focus back to her painting.

"I have one for my brother but I'm not saying it yet," Trixie commented, going over the wall with her brush.

"Oh, come on, give us a hand here!" Lucifer teased her, falling in sync perfectly with the concept of a family man that was now so familiar to him. "We have no clue, at least I don't,"

"I want to hear other suggestions first," Trixie said as seriously as she could manage, putting on an expression as if she were about to make a trade.

"Okay, what about... uh, Harry?" Lucifer suggested.

"Definitely not," Chloe interceded, all while carefully painting the wall. "I was thinking maybe Wyatt?"

"Those are awful names," Trixie said.

"I agree with the spawn. Naming our son Wyatt would be almost as awful as naming him Keith," and dead old dad knew Lucifer hated red-haired people and men named Keith. Chloe cracked a laugh at that, remembering the case when she first heard him say that.

"Well, then, what about Cedric?" Chloe tried again.

"Mom, what are we, in Harry Potter?" Trixie laughed wholeheartedly, remembering the movie.

"I really like that name, okay?" Chloe defended herself.

"I like Michael but I think he's an angel, right?" Trixie commented, getting Lucifer's attention immediately. "We could call him Mike,"

"Absolutely not and yes, Michael is, indeed, an angel," he scoffed, remembering his brother. "He's an ass and he's my twin brother, we're not naming my son after him,"

"You're a twin?" Trixie asked him with delight in her eyes.

"Sadly. And before you ask, he looks just like me but with his hair almost by his bum, a beard he hasn't shaved in eons and a white tunic that makes him look like a homeless Greek person," he really didn't like him one bit.

"That's... interesting," Chloe commented, imagining such a picture. "Well, what about Owen?"

"Why do you like such mainstream names? I'll admit it's the least awful of them all but we need to find something more unique," Chloe narrowed her eyes at him. "Are there any other names you like aside from the one you won't tell us?" He directed himself to the little urchin.

"I like Ryan, too," the little girl said innocently, all covered in dried and wet paint.

"No way. Ryan is your classic, vanilla, nut whack of a teenager that's dumb enough to believe the pulling out method actually works," Chloe narrowed her eyes at him further, horrified that he'd say such things in front of a ten-year-old. Thankfully, Trixie still kept her innocence intact and probably didn't get why Lucifer had said something like that.

"You are really hard to please, now I don't want to tell you the name I really like," Trixie told him with a slight pout, feeling insecure of all her choices.

"Don't pay attention to him, baby. I'm sure that name you really like is fantastic," Chloe reassures her daughter, keeping a stern look on the devil.

"Oh, come on spawn, don't take it so personally. Names are names, and if the poor things are going to be stuck with them for the rest of their lives we have to choose well. Even more so if they turn out to be immortal, they would hate us," we'll, he had somewhat of a point there. "Come on, you can tell me that name you like. I promise I won't make fun of it," he promised with all the love and affection possible in his voice, trying to make the little girl feel safe.

"Well... I really like August," and at that, neither Chloe nor Lucifer reacted badly.

"Actually, that's a really nice name. I like it," Chloe mentioned, bringing the hand she was painting with to a halt.

"You do?" Trixie asked with hope filling her little voice. "What about you, Lucifer? Do you like it?" She was so hopeful.

"Well, that's certainly not too bad," he acknowledged, also bringing his painting hand to a halt and turning around to face the spawn. "It actually sounds quite nice,"

"Really?" She wouldn't tell them but she had that name picked out ever since they found out the babies were a boy and a girl. She really loved that name and it would be awesome if her mother and Lucifer loved it, too.

"Yes, it has a nice ring to it," Chloe looked up at Lucifer with hope in her eyes. Maybe they had found it and it was Chloe's little girl the one that had picked it. "How did you come up with it?"

"Oh, easy. August is my favorite month of the year," she said like the clever little thing she was, smiling widely. "And since it's a name, too..."

"Thank goodness your favorite month of the year isn't February, the name picking algorithm wouldn't have work," Trixie cracked another big smile at that, loving that Lucifer liked it.

"What about you, mommy? Do you really like it?" She asked, hoping for the best and needing the reassurance.

"You know, Monkey? I really, really like it," Trixie's smile couldn't get any bigger than it was.

"So is this it? Are you naming him August?" Chloe looked up to Lucifer and with only sharing a glance they knew the little girl had hit the nail on the head. The name sounded just about perfect.

"It means 'respected and impressive', just like any Morningstar would be. It's a yes from me," Trixie couldn't contain her excitement anymore.

"I love it," Chloe agreed, placing her paint-covered hand on the lower part of her belly, where they knew they little baby boy was. Their little August, it was so surreal thinking he had a name already. "Our little August, it's perfect,"

"Yay!" Trixie jumped in joy, running to hug her mother and not caring about all the paint that got splashed on them thanks to her running with her wet brush in hand. "I can't believe I picked the name!"

"And you did a pretty good job at it, may I add," Lucifer joined the hug, loving that at least one of his babies had a name to be called by.

"And what about a middle name? Are they going to have one?" Trixie asked excitedly, bringing her little hands to her mom's belly.

"I would really like them to have middle names," Chloe looked up at Lucifer, and just like that, he could tell she already had something in mind.

"Since I did so well with his first name, may I suggest Luke for his middle one?" Trixie said, sort of trying to imitate Lucifer's accent but just cracking a laugh mid-sentence.

"For one, I don't talk like that, and two, Luke was a self-absorbed bastard, definitely the apostle I hated the most," he said grumpily, discarding the name because of his clause of 'non-biblical names only'.

"I was thinking..." Chloe started, hoping Lucifer would be on board with it. It was a biblical name, after all. "What about John? After my dad,"

The room fell into silence as both Lucifer and Trixie considered Chloe's suggestion. It didn't sound bad, it had a nice ring to it. August John, it would be like a king's name.

"I actually really like it. It's after grandpa," Trixie said, agreeing with Chloe.

"Yes, well, out of all twelve apostles I could tell you John was the nicest one," Lucifer added, clearly not too on board with the idea but being careful because he knew it was Chloe's dad's name.

"I know we said no biblical names but it's just... I'd like to have a piece of him in our son," Chloe said while looking down to where her feet would be, placing her hands on the lower part of her huge belly.

"It sounds beautiful, muffin", and just like that, Lucifer agreed. It was clearly really important for Chloe to have John present, and the combination sounded really nice to the ear. Lucifer wouldn't mind having a little biblical touch to one of his children's names if it meant Chloe would be happy. "August John, it's beautiful," they all smiled, taking in the beauty of the moment, of knowing that one of the babies finally had a name to be called by.

"Hey, you, you have a name," Chloe poked her own belly right underneath her belly button where she knew their little August was resting. They were probably sleeping since Chloe couldn't feel any kind of movement. "Now, how about we get this baby girl a name, too?" She poked the upper part of her stomach where their daughter was, head down and already kicking into her ribs.

"I like Faith!" Trixie said quickly, being ambitious and wanting to hit the jackpot, naming both of her siblings herself but also wanting to tease Lucifer in the process.

"Spawn, are you kidding?" And right when Lucifer made eye contact with her she burst into a fit of giggles.

"I was! I actually don't have any girl names I like..." she put her hand on the top of Chloe's stomach and brought her mouth close to it. "Sorry baby sister," she apologized to her, making the adults' hearts beat faster from the cuteness of the image itself.

"I have a name I like but I'm not too sure Lucifer will like it," Chloe says shyly, knowing Lucifer would probably say no given all the reasoning behind it. Truth to be told, she had thought of that name back when she first told Lucifer that Ansel had attacked her, and she liked it so much she didn't want to lose hope.

"Why wouldn't I?" He asks, genuinely curious.

"Well, we would be naming her after you," she told the love of her life, placing both of her hands in the top of her stomach; painting the room long forgotten. Luckily enough the second coat was almost over.

"You want to name a little girl after the bad, ugly devil? What? Do you want to call her Lilith?" He teased, but Chloe knew all the underlining issues that came with his identity and not knowing who he truly was. 

"Actually, I wanted to name her after Samael, The Lightbringer," Trixie looked at them confusedly, not knowing about Lucifer's former name and identity. Truth to be told, Lucifer wasn't too sure of how Chloe knew about it either.

"Chloe..." he mumbled, completely taken aback by her course of action.

"Just, hear me out, okay?" Chloe asks, and both of them choose to remain silent. Trixie, on her part, didn't understand much of what was going on, so she decided silence would be her best friend. "Back when we thought we were having just one baby and we found out it had powers... I thought that it would be really nice to name it after something so big and beautiful like you," Chloe sighed, hoping both her daughter and partner would be accepting of it. "I know you don't know why they even called you The Lightbringer and that, all in all, being the him is useless, but it isn't. You bring light wherever you go, you have literally lightened up my life ever since I met you, and you might believe you're not Samael anymore, and you're kind of not, but I think a big and beautiful part of him is still in there. I want to honor it,"

"Chloe, I... they called me The Lightbringer because I was the one Dad tasked with lighting up the stars. I didn't even know I could wield the flaming sword," he stuttered a little bit, taken aback by the beautiful words she had spoken about him, all under the curious but soft gaze of the little girl in the room. "Is it... is it really that worth it?"

"It is," Chloe was quick to say, grabbing one of his hands in between his. "You're not only Samael, the light bringer, but you're not only the devil either. And I think... woah, if you were the one to light up the stars then the name gets all the more fitting," Chloe smiled softly, trying to bring some reassurance to him. "I'd like to name our baby girl Claire. It's French for bright, just like her daddy," 

"Chloe Decker, you've managed to leave me speechless," he sighs, completely and utterly overwhelmed by all the beautiful words he had just heard. He couldn't believe his luck, and even if he didn't like to admit it, he thanked his father for having put such an amazing woman in his path.

"I really like it," and there it went, Trixie interrupting their moment as always. They loved her too much to be mad at her, though. 

"You do, huh?" Chloe asked her with a smile on her face, hoping Lucifer would be on board with it, too. "What about you? What do you think?" She asked the love of her life, wanting to know where he stood.

"I'm..." He sighed, smiling nervously as he brushed a hand through his hair full of paint. Chloe Decker could be so accurate and awesome with her words sometimes. "I love the name, it’s beautiful, but I... I just don't know what to say,"

"No funny comeback?" She teased him; emotion filling her eyes to the brim.

"You really want to name her after me? After everything—" Lucifer tried to quote everything bad he had done over the centuries, but Chloe didn't let him.

"—yes, after you. And she's going to be so proud that her daddy was and still is the brightest angel of them all," the hand that was holding his loosened its grip and went up to cup his cheek, caressing it softly.

"I guess it's set, then," he said with all his emotions showing right through his eyes; the usual dark chocolate of his orbs was covered with a layer of unshed tears.

Chloe Decker was as close to the definition of ‘perfection’ as one could possibly get. He couldn’t be more grateful to have such an amazing woman by his side, mothering his children, a woman that thought so highly of him and that forgave him for all the harm he had done.

“You are truly heaven sent, Chloe,” he took in all the beauty of the love of his life, placing a hand sweetly on top of her cheek, not caring about the spawn’s presence as he gave her the sweetest, most thankful kiss ever on her plump lips. “Both literally and figuratively,” he mumbled when he pulled away.

“I love you,” was Chloe’s answer before she pulled him in for another sweet kiss.

“You two are so disgusting,” and for the second time in the day, a comment made by Trixie was the one to pull them away from their moment. 

“It’s called ‘love’, you’ll understand it someday,” the little girl giggled at Lucifer’s explanation, going back to painting her designated wall.

“She still needs a middle name,” Trixie spoke, not having paid much attention to how emotional and sweet Chloe wanting to name their baby girl Claire was. Guess the whole story about Samael and the night he flew off into the skies to light up every star that ever existed would be left for another time.

“So you’re sure then? You want to name her Claire?” Chloe directed herself to the devil, seeking reassurance.

“I love the name, I love why you thought about it,” he brought one of his hands to the top of her stomach, immediately hearing his baby girl’s heartbeat. “It suits our little bright start perfectly,” he felt the tiniest kick underneath his palm, much like the very first ones he felt back when they were smaller. “And as for a middle name, I have an idea,”

“I’m all ears,” Trixie interceded once again, making Lucifer crack a wide smile.

“What are you thinking?” Chloe asked him softly, bringing her hand to her belly and letting it stand right beside his.

“Since August’s middle name is John, after your dad, well...” he sighed, nervous about the name he would suggest. He had thought about it for a while, though, having had it at the back of his mind. “I thought that maybe Claire’s middle name could be after my mum,”

“Oh, well... I- I didn’t think you would want that,” it takes Chloe by surprise, the mere fact that the devil wanted to name his daughter after his own mother. Back then, when the Goddess of all Creation was around, Chloe still didn’t know the truth about who, or rather what, Lucifer was. It endeared her that he also wanted to have a piece of his family in his babies. “You mean your mom as in the goddess, right? Not Charlotte,”

“Well, actually, at the beginning my mum was inside Charlotte’s body. Charlotte Richards was never my step mum,” he sighed, hoping Chloe would understand. “But yes, I do mean my mother as in the Goddess of all Creation. She’s the equivalent to ‘dead’ for us celestials... well, not exactly, but it is very difficult to explain,”

“How can a goddess die?” Trixie asked innocently, paying a lot of attention to the conversation but not necessarily looking at them.

“As I said before, she’s not dead. She is in another universe and when I sent her there I got rid of the key. Neither of us angels are ever going to see her again. Technically, she’s more than dead because for you humans there’s Heaven and Hell, you get the chance to reunite with your loved ones after you pass. In this case... I’m afraid we’ve seen the last of mum already,” it was a tiny bit sad, but he would never regret the choice he made. His mom deserved a new beginning, one away from his dad, and she got that.

“Well then, what did you have in mind?” Chloe actually really liked the fact that Lucifer was trying to include some of his roots into the man he was becoming, it meant that he had grown up a lot.

“I like the name Uma,” he said with a hint of shyness in his voice, looking down to Chloe’s belly. “It means ‘mother goddess’ in Indian,”

“Now that is a cool name,” Trixie was quick to say, turning around and looking at her mother and devil with excitement. They were starting to think excitement was Trixie’s default emotion.

“I think it’s perfect, baby,”

And that was it. Just like that, over an afternoon of furniture shopping and bricolage, their children got their names: August John and Claire Uma, all four of them having meaning, all four of them giving those two unborn babies something theirs, something no one could ever take from them. It was surreal to think of them as people, as two little beings who could now be addressed personally, although they hadn’t been born yet. All the stories Chloe told them whenever she took a shower, all the late-night conversations Lucifer still had with them up to this date... they weren’t ‘the babies’ or ‘the spawns’ anymore, they were August and Claire, and truth to be told, Chloe, Lucifer, and Trixie were completely, utterly in love with them and their names already.

Now, when it came to picking their last names... yeah, that would be a whole another problem on itself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What do you think about the names? I honestly love them so much! I’ve had them picked out for a while and I just couldn’t wait to let you guys in on them!


	21. Chapter XXI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I know 4 days isn't that long of a wait but I'm proud of myself hahaha. 
> 
> Okay, so I’ve got a few things I wanted to say, so here they go.
> 
> 1\. I’ve been thinking about this for a long while, and I know it may seem weird to propose this but I would really like it. I love reading your comments and interacting with you guys so much, that I’ve been thinking of maybe doing a Zoom call with you? It would be like a Q&A about the fic or about future projects that I have, what do you think about it? Would you be up to it?
> 
> 2\. Am I the only one that believes Germ (aka Lauren German) has an embarrassing crush on Tom? I don’t know if you guys watch bts stuff from when they film but I get the feeling she’s hopelessly crushing on Tom hahahah.
> 
> 3\. Thank you so much to each and every one of you that wished me luck for my test. I still have the second one to go but I got 8/12 in the first one so yay!
> 
> I hope you like this chapter, let me know what you think of it and the whole Zoom call thing on the comments. If there’s a reasonable amount of you that are up for it then we’ll do it. I’ll just have to figure the logistics of the whole different time zones issue but I think it’s doable. 
> 
> Take care and stay safe!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

“No way,” Chloe sighed, having Lucifer sat right beside her and deciding which things she got to work on. That was something she had had to learn how to deal with ever since she started working on desk duty back when she got shot.

“I only asked her to assist me on a case, you don’t even know what it’s about,” Daniel argued. Trying to get past Lucifer these days whenever Chloe was around was almost impossible. “Chill, dude,”

“Don’t listen to him, he’s being a helicopter parent already,”Chloe dismissed him, watching as he opened his mouth wide in surprise. “What did you need?”

“Okay, I’m positive Lucifer will say no but I gotta ask,” and oh he was right, the devil wouldn’t be pleased.

“You’re supposing right, Daniel,”

“Okay, so, I’m working that case of the woman found on a dumpster in a private neighborhood, right?” Chloe nods at him, knowing which case he was talking about. “And it’s really high profile because everyone there is rich, but I’ve hit a dead-end,”

“I don’t understand how she can help you with this. Have you talked to Miss Lopez?” Lucifer interceded.

“Yeah. It was a crime of passion, the scene was really messy but no leads as of now,” Dan sighs, getting ready to ask what he wanted. “I need an insider, someone to go undercover,”

“No no no no no, and have I mentioned no, and also no?” He jumped the second the suggestion came out of Daniel’s mouth. No way, no one was going to be doing that, not under his watch. “She’s on desk duty for a reason, Daniel. No, actually, two reasons,”

“I know she is, and that’s why it’s genius!” In his douchy mind, the plan made sense. “If you two go undercover for a couple of days no one will suspect, and you can talk to all the neighbors,”

“Dan, I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Chloe spoke up, placing her hands on her thirty-week bump. Even though she still had almost two months to go, she looked to be full term already. “I’m a liability on the field right now, I can’t even walk without waddling,”

“You wouldn’t need to be on active duty,” he insisted. “I just need you to play family for a while and ask the neighbors about the dead girl. Her husband doesn’t know of anyone who might have done it and the neighbors claim to not have seen anything,”

“Daniel, I don’t think you get it but have you seen her? She still has a while to go and she looks like she’s about to burst,” Lucifer, always so gentle. “I’m no expert but that seems uncomfortable,”

“Thanks for the compliment, sweetie,” the sarcasm was palpable in her voice.

“Chloe, please,” Dan begged, ignoring Lucifer’s commentary.

“Why can’t you ask someone else to go undercover?” She asks this time, bringing up the paperwork she had been doing on that particular case. Since she was on desk duty, she was helping out with everyone’s paperwork.

“You know about the case and you have experience. And Lucifer has gone undercover before, too,”

“Don’t remind me. I’ll never forget seeing Lucifer sucking Pierce’s mouth,” Chloe made a noise, scrunching up her nose. 

“As you know, detective, I’m devoted to my job,” he said with a smug smirk on her face, remembering how uncomfortable Cain had been. “But no, Daniel. I’m not putting my family at risk,”

“You wouldn’t be at risk,” he insisted, being persistent. “You don’t need to barge in and shoot everybody, you just have to be nice and ask questions,” Lucifer and Chloe remained silent, considering Daniel’s offer. “Please?”

“Dan, I... I’m pregnant with twins, what if I go into labor while I’m there?” Chloe couldn’t help it but be concerned.

“Don’t you still have a while to go?”

“Twins almost never make it to term,” she answered with both hands on her stomach, bringing emphasis to her words.

“Darling, I hate to say this, but chances are you’ll get to term. If those two are anything like me they’ll love making an elegantly late entrance,” Chloe sighed, and although she could see Lucifer wasn’t too on board with it, he was starting to change his mind.

“Have you talked to the lieutenant?” Chloe started giving in and surprisingly, Lucifer didn’t stop her.

“I haven’t but I will,”

“You know she’s going to tell you a big, fat no, right?” Lucifer had calmed down, he was counting on Lieutenant Monroe’s sensibility towards the issue.

“I’ve gotta try, but does that mean yes?” Chloe sighed deeply and then she nodded, giving Daniel the confirmation. Those would be some awful days.

* * *

“Why on Earth do I have to wear this again?” Lucifer was hiding behind the men’s bathroom door, refusing to come out into the precinct with such an outfit on. He was so out of his comfort zone, he missed his three-piece suits and red bottoms.

“Lucifer, come on out. I’m wearing a polka-dotted dress while eight months pregnant, it can’t be that bad,” Chloe insisted, wearing a dress that in cut resembled a lot the kind of dresses Eve would wear. They had been trying to get him to come out of that bathroom for at least half an hour.

The lieutenant had said yes... Eventually.

When Daniel first approached her with his idea to interrogate all neighbors despite their alibis, she had immediately refused. Chloe had been on desk duty ever since she got shot on the leg and she was a huge liability on the field, but she could acknowledge the fact that a newly-wed couple about to have their first baby would be the best chance they got to get the neighbors to approach them and not suspect they were cops. It had taken Lieutenant Monroe two days to come around allowing Chloe on the field for that particular case, and every single one inside there was regretting it.

Lucifer and Chloe would assume the identities of Patrick and Sophia Longwood, a couple that had been married for two years and were about to have their first baby, ‘due in two weeks’, whose gender was a surprise.

Apparently, Patrick and Sophia were the average, most normal couple to ever exist. Assuming their identities would allow them to have as low of a profile as possible as they went over the neighborhood and asked casual questions about the woman found murdered in a dumpster. Honestly, the plan was genius... if only Chloe weren’t so uncomfortable.

“Okay, so we’ve packed you a suitcase each with all the clothing Patrick and Sophia would wear. Toiletries and such are stored in the house already,” Ella said as she walked up to Chloe, carrying two suitcases of medium size. “Hopefully this won’t take more than a couple of days,”

“If this takes more than three days I’m leaving, I refuse to be seen like this,” said Lucifer from inside the bathroom.

“Come on, Lucifer, don’t act like a child, I don’t need a fourth kid,” Chloe begged, feeling tired already. They heard Lucifer sigh and the door was opened, showing a seriously not pleased devil. “Oh, come on, baby, it’s not that bad! You look great!” And of course he did, he looked great in anything.

Lucifer was wearing knee-length denim shorts in a khaki color and a plain white polo shirt, paired with dark sunglasses and dark brown leather loafers without socks on. He had a v neck pullover with the sleeves tied around his shoulders for if the weather got too cold. It was the beginning of April, though, so the weather was starting to warm up.

“I hate this... no no no, I loathe this,” he complained, coming out of the bathroom with the grumpiest look Chloe had ever seen on his face. Truth to be told, he looked far hotter like this than he did in his signature suits to Chloe, but she would never say that aloud.

“It’s no so bad, you look great,” Chloe complimented him, knowing he felt insecure. “Babe, I’m wearing a white polka-dotted dress with flats, it doesn’t get worse than this,”

“Daniel, I swear on dad’s name, if you make a comment about this you’re not seeing tomorrow,” detective Espinoza tried to keep in his laughter but he was unable to. Everyone in the precinct was looking at them, amused from seeing them look like everything they weren’t.

“You guys look so average, no one’s gonna suspect anything!” And of course, the only one excited about it all had to be Ella. “And you look so great together like this! Not that you don’t look great every day but...”

“We get it, Miss Lopez, we’ve become awfully average, thank you very much. Now, where is this neighborhood? I want to solve this case and get out of these clothes as soon as possible,” Lucifer was so uncomfortable it was funny.

“We’ve texted you the address, it’s near Beverly Hills,” Dan comments, looking awfully smug. “Oh, and don’t forget these,” he pulls out a small black box from his jacket pocket and hands it over to them. “Your engagement and wedding rings,” Lucifer looked at the three rings inside the box with a horrified look on his face.

“I would’ve never picked these! Who picked these? They are horrible,” he complained, pulling the engagement ring out of the box and examining it. “Gold twelve? Really? Couldn’t you get to at least twenty one karats?” He looked to be so offended knowing that Chloe would be wearing a ring he put in her finger that looked like that. Although, actually, Patrick had been the one to put the ring on Sophia’s finger, not Lucifer on Chloe’s.

“This is getting close to the most insufferable you’ve ever gotten and that’s saying a lot,” Chloe scolded him, taking the smaller wedding band out of the box and putting it on her left ring finger. “Come on, give me that,” she gestured for him to hand her the engagement ring and he reluctantly did, hating it too much. The gold was poor quality, the diamond was opaque and small. It was utterly terrible and insulting to a man like him.

“Just for the record, I would never get you a ring that awful, muffin,” he reluctantly pulled out the bigger wedding band from the box and slid it on his own left ring finger, realizing it felt weird but comforting having the weight of it there.

“You’d probably buy a ring so big I wouldn’t be able to lift up my hand, I know,” she sighed, grabbing the handle of one of the suitcases. “Come on, we’ve got a case to solve,”

“I’ve never been more eager to solve a case in my entire life as a civilian consultant,”

“Remember, you’ve been married for two years, you are due in two weeks, you don’t know the gender of your baby. Sophia is a lawyer but she’s on maternity leave and Patrick is a businessman that works in Capitol Records. The rest of the story you can build it yourselves,” Dan explained them carefully, hoping they would remember.

“We know, Daniel, we’re not deaf. We got it around the fifteenth time you told us,” Lucifer huffed, annoyed from going undercover already.

“Just, please, don’t fuck this up. I had to do wonders to get Olivia on board with this,” Lucifer and Chloe both nodded, already getting themselves into Patrick and Sophia’s personalities. So dull and boring, if you asked the devil.

And with that, they left towards the parking lot, Lucifer insisting he would be the one loading the suitcases into the car and doing all the heavy lifting. Chloe would have complained having their situation been different, but she was just too pregnant to care. She was only thirty weeks along but looked to be about to give birth, which made her wonder how on Earth would she manage to get bigger than that.

The drive up to the neighborhood was done in a pretty comfortable silence; Lucifer’s hand placed on Chloe’s thigh as they drove a boring, black SUV through the streets of LA. Chloe spent all the trip looking out the window and just lost inside her own mind, not knowing what to do or feel.

The weight of the two rings on her left ring finger had become too much already. She would stare at them in awe, looking at their reflection under LA’s April sunshine and wonder when it would be that she got to wear a pair of those, ones that were real. She wanted to have that weight on her left hand for the rest of her life, she wanted to know that those two rings meant more than just an undercover job for the LAPD. Those rings were Patrick and Sophia’s, though, not her and Lucifer’s, and that made her feel kind of sad.

She knew Lucifer would eventually want to put a ring on it. He had said so when they first saw their new home a month and a half ago; the devil walking through the threshold with his queen on his arms as he told her they would be doing it again once she became “Chloe Morningstar”. She, though, never expected such behavior from herself. She knew she would want a life of stability and compromise with the handsome devil, but she didn’t know she’d want it that soon. Only six weeks ago she had been left completely speechless at the mention of her becoming his wife and now, looking at Sophia’s rings, there was nothing she would want more than that.

She knew they had bigger things to worry about, like the fact that their twins would be Earthside in two months or less, like the fact that they had just moved into their new home and had just started their life of sharing a place together. Putting a ring on it would be just a formality, a physical thing that would prove to others how much she loved the life she got to have, it was truly insignificant. Yet she couldn’t help it but want it so much.

“Everything okay, darling?” Lucifer asked as they drove into the gates of the private neighborhood, noticing she was looking at the rings.

“Yeah, sure,” she said, dismissing her sudden urge to have an engagement ring of her own. Lucifer scowled, knowing she wasn’t telling the truth but not pushing it further. “Just praying that this will go smoothly so Patrick and Sophia can go back to where they came from,”

“Agreed,” he mumbled, driving through a beautiful street with suburb houses to both sides of it. It bifurcated at some points, to which Chloe had to give him directions on where to go. “Which house number did we get?”

“House twenty-eight B, it should be right around... here,” they found the house they had been assigned to. It wasn’t necessarily one of the larger houses in the neighborhood but it would suffice.

“Ready, my darling Sophia?” Lucifer teased her, trying to forget that she lied to him about feeling upset. 

“Of course, Patrick,” Chloe smiled lightly as she opened the passenger’s door, getting out of the car with all the trouble in the world. Being eight months pregnant with twins was no joke.

There was a moving van parked in front of their home which had officers dressed as civilians. They would check the area and assure it was secure for them to be there, and once they got a nod from a fellow officer, they put on their act.

It definitely didn’t take long for someone to approach them, new neighbors were always interesting, even more so in noisy neighborhoods like the one they were ‘living’ in. However, while someone did approach, it was only to slip an invitation under the door for a gathering to honor Rebecca, the victim, and talk about her life.

Lucifer and Chloe quickly got to it, dressing up in dark clothing from what was in Sophia and Patrick’s closet and as soon as the clock hit six pm they drove towards the event venue the neighborhood had. They rehearsed their small talk information, going over everything that Dan had told them they should say. Chloe was uncomfortable, to say the least, but someone had to give Rebecca some justice.

They got out of the car and walked towards the rather small venue hand in hand; Chloe having put a hand over her belly to enhance it and also because being heavily pregnant had few perks, and one of them was using the belly as an armrest.

“Hello, we’re Patrick and Sophia Longwood, we moved into the neighborhood just today,” Lucifer said to the man standing still at the front door, handing him the invitation they got.

“Go ahead,” Chloe smiles timidly at the overly serious man and followed the devil’s lead, walking into the room.

Everything was decorated in white and pink, and practically all the neighborhood was there, paying tribute to Rebecca’s life.

“Rebecca must have been very loved,” Chloe commented, switching from holding hands to grabbing him by the arm. 

“Or very hated. She’d lived in this neighborhood long enough to make a reasonable amount of frenemies,” they walked up to the big altar with roses and candles that the neighbors had set up for her, leaving a small bouquet of white roses so they wouldn’t stand out too much.

“Good point,” Chloe sighed, finding herself looking around to spot a chair to sit on.

“Oh, you must be the new neighbors,” they heard the voice of an older woman calling them from behind. “I’m sorry that you had to arrive and the first thing you had to see was this,”

“Indeed, we are. Patrick and Sophia Longwood, pleasure to meet you,” Lucifer offered the older woman his hand on a handshake, which the woman took, looking very interested in Patrick’s looks. “And there’s nothing to apologize for,”

“It must be awful still, moving into a new home and find your neighbors mourning a loss, especially one this tragic,” she looked down, moved by the situation they were in. “Oh, where are my manners? I’m Willow Jacksonville, I’m the one that organized all of this,”

“Does the police know anything about what happened to poor Rebecca? I mean, we didn’t get to meet her but judging by all of this,” Chloe gestured around. “She was very loved. Who would want to do this?” She brought up her long-forgotten acting skills, trying to get something valuable.

“We truly have no idea, and the police don’t either,” Willow pouted a little. “Rebecca was like a daughter to me, she had been living here for almost fifteen years. I still can’t believe she’s gone,”

“It must be truly awful. We give you our truest, deepest condolences,” Lucifer said respectfully, bringing his ‘wife’ closer to him by grabbing her by her nonexistent waist.

“Thank you, we really appreciate it,” Chloe nodded, actually feeling sorry for her. “Darling, do you want to have a seat? I know how uncomfortable it is standing when you’re that far along,” Willow gestured to Chloe, pointing at her belly.

“Yes, that would be lovely, thank you,” and she was truly thankful.

“Come over here, dinner will be served any minute,” Willow guided them towards one of the sides of the room, where round tables had been decorated in the same scheme of colors and plates were already placed neatly. It looked to be more like a wedding than a memorial. “When are you due? You can’t have much left, right?”

“Any day now, I’m due April seventeenth,” she said, doing the math in her head. If she only knew she still had more than a month to go.

“It must be very exciting, is it your first one?” Willow seemed to be asking out of cordiality, so Chloe just smiled at her and kept answering the questions just like she had rehearsed.

“Yes, it’s our first baby. We can’t wait for him or her to be here,”

“Willow?” They heard another voice and turned towards its source, finding a blonde, tall and lanky man they already knew was Rebecca’s husband. He was with another man beside him as well, this one much bulkier and not so nice looking. However, the looks on both their faces were of distraught and pain.

“Allan, sweetie, how are you holding up?” Willow stood up and embraced Allan tightly. “How’s Felicity?” The man named Allan gave a confused look to Chloe and Lucifer.

“Sorry, who are they?” He asked; pain palpable in his voice.

“They’re Patrick and Sophia Longwood. They moved into twenty-eight B just today,”

“Our condolences, Allan,” Chloe said, giving him a tight but hopefully warm smile. He nodded at her as a way of saying thank you.

“Felicity is doing okay, she just fell asleep,” he answered to Willow’s initial question, dismissing the devil and his partner. “And it’s been hard on all of us, but mostly on her, I mean... She just lost her mom, she’s devastated. Thank you for this, it’s lovely,”

“It was nothing, sweetheart. Rebecca deserved this, I’m sorry I couldn’t do more,” she hugs him again while Chloe takes mental notes of what she’s seeing. “Jason, I heard you found out just today,”

“Sadly, my dear,” the bulky man says, apparently named Jason, with deep emotion filling his green eyes. “Losing my best friend... I never thought this would happen to us. When the police catch the bastard that did this I’m going to talk to him personally,”

“Just... don’t get in trouble, sweetheart, okay?”

“I won’t, Willie, I just... I feel so powerless, I can’t even imagine what you and Fizzy must be feeling, man,” he turned to Allan to say that last bit of the sentence.

“I’m a lawyer and I’ve worked on cases like this countless times. The best thing you can do is talk to the police, tell them everything you know about the victim and who would want to hurt them,” Chloe says, placing a hand on Lucifer’s thigh and feeling sorry for all the people who have lost a friend or significant other like that.

“I’ve talked to the police already, I don’t know what else I could say,” Allan told her. “They don’t have any witnesses, no one to question. I’m scared no one will ever close this,”

“Bro, don’t say that! We gotta trust the cops, they are doing everything they can,” and if by that Jason meant sending a heavily pregnant detective undercover to find out about the murder then yes, the police were doing everything they could.

“Willie, have you seen Sienna? I’d like to talk to her, she was Rebecca’s best friend, too,” Allan asks Willow, wiping a tear away from his face.

“I haven’t. Poor thing, I don’t think she’ll even get out of the house, her husband, too,” Willow sighs, feeling the weight on her shoulders. “I believe Tyler was the one to find Rebecca...”

“Excuse us, do you mind if we go for a little walk? At this far along practically every position hurts,” Chloe places a hand on her belly, wanting to get an excuse to leave and talk to Lucifer.

“You’re pregnant? Congratulations, is it a boy or a girl?” Jason, the guy that looked to be straight out of an action movie, asked her with genuine interest.

“We don’t know yet, we want it to be a surprise. I’m two weeks away from my due date and we just can’t wait,” Chloe answers, smiling softly. “I can’t wait to not be pregnant anymore,”

“I bet it must be uncomfortable,” he said nicely. “Thank you for coming and congratulations on your baby,” he said again, and Chloe felt happy that her pregnancy had brought a smile to a couple of faces there at least.

“Thank you, Jason, and again, we are so deeply sorry for your loss. I’m sure Rebecca was a wonderful woman,” Lucifer intercedes, standing up beside Chloe and bringing his left hand to rest on her lower back.

“Indeed, she was. Thank you,” said Allan, looking grateful and moving out of the way so Chloe and Lucifer could go on that walk.

“Hey, do you think we’ll get in too much trouble if we sneak into Allan’s house?” Chloe asked Lucifer once they were a safe distance away, trying to waddle her way out of the venue.

“I was thinking just the same thing, my dear,” and with a smug smile on their faces they went to their car, driving towards the victim’s home. Since no one really locked the doors in private neighborhoods, sneaking in would be pretty easy.

“Okay, so, I won’t go in because of obvious reasons,” she pointed at her belly, gasping a little when she felt one of Claire’s kicks to her right rib. By thirty weeks the babies had already positioned themselves side by side, being both head down; Claire on the right and August on the left. “You’ve got to wear these,” she pulled out of the glove compartment a pair of black, latex gloves and she only had to look at Lucifer for him to understand that he had to put them on. “The warrant to go into the house has yet to be approved, so take pictures of anything you think might be helpful and try not to destroy anything, okay?”

“I love it when you get bossy,” he leaned in to place a peck on her plump lips. “I love it far more when in bed, though,” Chloe cracked a laugh and unlocked the car’s central locking to let Lucifer out of it.

Lucifer got out of the car and the first thing he did was check the lock on the front door. As Chloe had suspected, it was open. Everyone knew each other in a neighborhood like that one, so there really wasn’t a reason to mistrust. He swiftly sneaked in, finding the house almost completely dark; the only light on being a salt lamp. He made his way into the living room, where the dim light came from, and found a rather interesting image. 

There was a child that looked to be around five or six years old, cuddling with a woman probably on her thirties or something. They were both sleeping, covered with a blanket, and clearly comfortable in each other’s embrace, breathing slowly, which told him they had been like that for a while. That kid was obviously Felicity, Allan and Rebecca’s daughter, but who the woman was? Lucifer had no idea.

He quickly spotted a folder on top of the coffee table and without making a sound he went towards it, opening it to find a lot of contracts and legal documents, in between which was a certificate of adoption. He took an immediate interest in that and snapped pictures of everything he could in there, trying to be quick and efficient. He found the child’s birth certificate as well and took a picture of it. No one had said anything about the context of the family before, so neither he nor Chloe knew the girl was adopted. It wouldn’t normally get him too curious, they had worked with adoptive parents before, but the lack of paperwork in that folder was worrisome to Lucifer. He knew adoption was hard and that it involved stacks upon stacks of paperwork and contracts, and yet, all they had from this girl were a couple of contracts, a birth certificate, and an adoption certificate.

Another thing, though, was the one that caught his attention the most. When holding up the birth certificate against the dim light the salt lamp was emanating, he did not see California State’s logo in the color-shifting seal that certified the documents were original, and upon more examination, he saw the same thing happened with the adoption one. They were fake, both of them. That had to count for something, right?

He snapped pictures of the fake seals and placed all the papers back inside the folder, and while he was trying to make it look like no one had been there in the first place, he came across a passport. He opened it up and he had to say, if it was fake, it looked to be pretty legit, in opposition to what the birth and adoption certificates had been. He snapped pictures of that, too, and decided he was done. Finding out the victim’s child had a fake birth and adoption certificate could promote a deeper search. Maybe Rebecca wasn’t as saintly as everyone thought her to be.

He quickly and swiftly made his way out of the house, placing his phone back inside the pocket of the black slacks he was wearing. At least someone in the precinct had had the decency to put something wearable inside his suitcase, he sure would never survive if he had to live in knee-length shorts and polo tee-shirts constantly.

“Woah, that was quick,” Chloe complimented him when he got inside the car, locking the doors right after.

“Everything I needed to see was right in the middle of the living room. Check this,” he unlocked his phone and handed it over to Chloe, starting the engine of the car and driving towards the venue to keep up their appearances.

“So, the girl is adopted, what’s so weird about that?” Chloe asked him, going over the photos.

“The certificates were fake. The reflective seal on them didn’t have California State’s logo,” he took a turn to the right. “There was a woman in with the child. They were napping on the sofa and she was hugging... Felicity, I think it was. All these documents were on the coffee table,”

“So this could be a case of kidnapping,” Chloe sighed. She had been hoping the case would be simpler but as it turns out they would have to get child protection services involved now. “Great, absolutely awesome,” she said sarcastically, bringing her hands to her belly and rubbing it. “I guess we could run her passport picture through the missing persons' record and see if something comes up,” she looked at the passport picture; the little girl was not older than a one-year-old, and she was fast asleep.

“Fear not, detective. We’re going to solve this, we’re a team,” Lucifer reassured her, placing a hand on her thigh and squeezing lovingly.

“I don’t doubt that. I’m fearing that if this is a kidnapping case, we won’t find whoever did it in the first place,” she sighed.

“We will, darling. Besides, I’d place my bets on our dead woman, she was the child’s ‘adoptive mother’ after all,” Lucifer suggested, pulling over at the venue once again.

“It isn’t common for women to steal children. It used to happen a lot in churches back in the day, but nowadays it’s... It makes me sick thinking about someone stealing any of my children,” she rubbed her belly, getting sick to the stomach at the thought of losing one of her three little ones.

“Classic church behavior. They’re like a cult if you think about it, going above and beyond everything that’s morally correct in the name of my father,” Lucifer brought one of his hands to Chloe’s stomach, rubbing it gently. “Don’t be scared, love. Nothing of the sort will happen to either Beatrice or our children, I would never allow it,”

“I know you wouldn’t,” she smiled softly at him, both feeling how their little ones were kicking and wrestling inside their mother’s womb. “Come on, babe. We gotta get moving and send all of this to Ella, see if she can come up with something,”

Considering it was barely seven in the evening, Chloe sent the pictures Lucifer had taken and explained the situation, hoping Ella would find something out with that. In a normal day, Ella would still be working at the precinct by seven in the evening, so they could be hopeful.

However, the facial recognition software had to match the passport picture to all the faces in the record of missing persons, so it would still take a while, probably up to the next day if she left it running for the night. That was a little off-putting but hey, it gave them the chance of going back to the party and seeing new faces, look for suspects.

They got out of the car and they immediately found Willow standing at the front entrance, looking worried about them.

“Patrick, Sophia, everything okay? I got worried when you didn’t come back,” that woman was so sweet.

“Yeah, sure, I...” she had to think of an excuse pretty quickly because she had seen them get out of the car. “I forgot to bring my blood pressure medication, so I had to go back home and take it. It sucks that you can’t drive when nine months pregnant,” she remembered having to take pills for her blood pressure back when she was pregnant with Trixie, and it seemed to work just fine.

“Oh, darling, are you feeling okay?” She came up to them with worry in her eyes.

“Sure, I’m fine, Willow, but thank you for your concern,”

They made their way into the party once again, Chloe having blamed her forgetfulness about her pill on the move and the whole ‘pregnancy brain’ thing. She had to pat herself on the shoulder, though. Her improv was on point.

Upon arriving at the table where they had been seated before, they found another couple that had arrived with a sweet baby boy in the woman’s arms. They smiled cordially and introduced themselves before sitting back on their seats, the conversation having shifted fully to the one-month-old baby boy in scene.

“He is so precious, Katherine, congratulations,” Lucifer said, looking at the baby in Katherine’s arms and trying his best not to gag. When it came to Trixie or his babies he was fine, but other human babies and children still creeped him out.

“Thank you, Patrick. I’m so sorry he’ll never get to meet Rebecca, though. I used to leave my oldest at her place all the time when I had to go to work,”

“I know, Kat, Keith loved spending time with Rebecca. She and Fizzy would play so much with him, feel free to drop him off at our place anytime you want,” Allan told her and Lucifer made the tiniest bit of a grimace at the mention of the name. Poor kid, honestly. The last thing he needed was being a redhead. Chloe ignored Lucifer as she literally read his mind, making sure to make a mental note on how they were all such a tight-knit community.

Chloe did a visual scan of the rest of the people there. Everyone had taken a seat and were all eating dinner together, probably talking about all the good Rebecca had done in her life. It was weird but all the faces looked to be so nice, so genuine. None of the people there would give her her usual gut feeling that something was wrong there, but then again, they were all rich and had jobs and salaries one could only dream of, they were trained on how to be fake. It still vexed Chloe the fact that she couldn’t pinpoint them as well as she would have liked.

A couple of minutes into dinner, Chloe’s phone started to ring. She would have dismissed it, but upon checking the caller ID she noticed it was Ella. She couldn’t have gotten the results back from the facial recognition software, it would be too good to be true.

“Sorry, I’ve got to take this,” she slowly and with discomfort stood up, having Lucifer’s eyes on her at all times, following her with them as she walked towards the bathroom where fewer people would be around. “Ella, you’ve got something?” She asked once she saw nobody was within hearing distance from her.

“Yes, Decker, I have,” she was excited. Typical Ella. “So, I made the software look for missing people around the date this kid would have disappeared and the age she would have been and it came up almost instantly. Her name is Riley Jones, and she was reported missing five years ago when she was less than a year old,”

“So the certificates are fake then,” Chloe assumed, remembering the name on the birth certificate being different.

“Yeah, they are, but they’re really nicely done. Give kudos to Luce for figuring that one out,” Chloe could hear Ella smiling from the other side of the line. “The passport is real, though. Maybe they fooled the registry or they paid them off,”

“Is that all?” Chloe asked her, concerned someone would come her way and hear what she was talking about.

“Nope, you’re not gonna believe this. I did a background search on the kid's biological parents and check this out: they are living in that exact same neighborhood,”

“So there’s a motive, they could have found out Felicity was their kid and want revenge,” Chloe started putting up possible scenarios inside her head, seeing all the possible outcomes. “Have you told Dan all of this?”

“I have to tell him yet but good work there. I’ll send you the pictures of her biological parents together with a patrol. There’s enough stuff on them to carry out an investigation,” Ella was so excited and Chloe couldn’t thank her enough. It looked like they wouldn’t be wearing dresses and knee-length shorts for too long.

“Ella, you’re the best!” She heard the ringtone of her phone go off twice.

“I know! Good luck you two, take care,”

“We will. Thank you so much, Ella!” And with that, she hung up the call and took a look at the pictures Ella had sent her. She hadn’t seen those two in the gathering, and apparently everyone was there, that fact on itself had to be telling. They were Tyler and Sienna Jones, and ironically enough they lived in the house next to theirs, the twenty-eight A.

She texted Lucifer that they got a lead and that a patrol was coming before she walked back to the table, going back to being Sophia Longwood.

“Everything okay, sweetheart?” Lucifer asked her with concern, having read her texts.

“Yeah, just a junior associate calling for help on an important case. They have the worst timing,” she laughed it off and sat back down again, placing a hand on Lucifer’s thigh to reassure him.

The conversation and dinner carried on for a while until they inevitably saw the red and blue lights of a police patrol going through the streets of the neighborhood. That was the moment where everyone stopped doing what they were doing and went outside to look and be their gossiping selves. Chloe and Lucifer couldn’t go over there because they were undercover, they didn’t want to risk the people in there knowing they were with the cops. However, they found it wouldn’t be that weird if they came up to them because Tyler and Sienna lived right next door.

“Everything okay, officers?” Lucifer asked with Chloe by his side, being careful enough so noisy ears wouldn’t hear them. “Can we help with anything?”

“I’ve gotta say, the family dad look suits you, Lucifer,” officer Anderson teased him in a low voice, looking around. They weren’t alone but luckily it wasn’t a lot of people, they had been stopped by other officers from coming closer. “And no, we don’t need any more help. With any luck, you two will be out of here tomorrow,”

“Are you sure? The desire thingy could be really useful here,” Chloe adds, trying to look concerned other than relieved.

“I have orders not to risk blowing your cover so back to your house you go. Call me when you’re in there and I can give you the details,” officer Anderson was always so charming, he was a sweetheart.

“Of course, officer,” Chloe grabbed on to Lucifer’s arm and they made the short way back to their ‘home’, eager to call someone in there and know what was going on. With any luck he was right and they would be out of there and back at their place by the next day.

“Anderson, give us the deets,” Chloe said as soon as the officer picked up the call.

“The husband’s here but he was asleep, he said Sienna went for a walk before he laid down,” the officer explained.

“Show me a picture of Sienna,” Lucifer asked Chloe, which made her bring the phone back down from her ear so she could show him what Ella had sent him. A look of realization came across his face as he took the phone out of Chloe’s hands.

“I know where she is. She’s at house twenty-two A, she’s with the child,” Lucifer told the officer, ignoring the threatening look in Chloe’s blue eyes.

“On our way,” and he then hung up the phone.

“Why would he hang up the phone, I mean, I’m his superior,” Chloe told Lucifer, sitting down on the couch and breathing heavily. Going undercover had not been a great idea, she could see that now that her belly was tight.

“I hate to break it to you, darling, but you’re not. Daniel is, and he will be getting a piece of my mind once all of this is over. I don’t understand how Olivia would approve this,” he sat right by her side, rubbing her lower back to alleviate the pressure.

“Ugh,” she winced, feeling an all too known pain spread over her back and belly.

“Everything okay?” Chloe breathed slowly and deeply, calm about the situation and just waiting for the pain to go away. Braxton Hicks contractions could be awful at times.

“Yeah, just a tiny practice contraction, that’s all,” she sighed once it was over.

She truly didn’t know how she would make it through labor. She had a twenty-second long, mild Braxton Hicks contraction and it kicked the breath out of her, she couldn’t even imagine what active labor contractions with twins would do to her.

“I’m going to kick Daniel’s ass once this is over,” he placed a kiss on the top of her head, having dealt with practice contractions before.

“No, you won’t. I know you hate Braxton Hicks almost as much as I do but they’re normal, they aren’t Dan’s fault,”

“Everything that’s happening here is Daniel’s fault,” he gestured to the house they were currently living in.

“This is my last active case before the babies arrive, I promise,” she leaned towards him and placed her head on his shoulder, calming down. “We just have to get through this,”

And then the phone rang again.

Chloe picked it up quickly and put it on speaker so Lucifer would hear, too; both of them eager to know what was happening.

“Good job guys, you caught her,” Anderson congratulated them, not sounding as pleased as Chloe would have liked.

“We did? That easily?” Chloe wondered, thankful but also wary. Cases were never so easy, much less one they had to go undercover to solve.

“Sienna Jones confessed right away to killing Rebecca, we’re getting her in the car,” the officer explained.

“Well, then this is it, right? Do we get to go home? Can we go there with you guys and leave?” Lucifer asked, wanting all that circus to be over so he and Chloe could peacefully wait for the arrival of their little ones.

“I’m afraid not,” Anderson sighed on the other side of the line, getting ready to tell them what happened.

“Sebastian, what happened?” Chloe called him by his first name, concerned that her gut feeling of the case being too easy had become true.

“A baby’s gone missing,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m hearing you guys! Are you up to a Q&A Zoom call?? ⬇️⬇️⬇️


	22. Chapter XXII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry I took longer to finish this! My inspiration frenzy seems to have ended and I’ve been through a lot this past week, sorry that I couldn’t upload sooner. But hey, you get a bit of Douchifer action here, so you’re welcome!
> 
> Guys, I wanna thank you so much for almost 16k hits and 666+ kudos! I actually caught the kudo count when it got to 666 and took a screenshot. I would post it but I’m a grandma and I don’t know how to hahah! Keep up the commenting and kudoing, they really keep me going.
> 
> I didn’t really get if you guys wanted to do a zoom call or not. A yes or no down by the comments would be really appreciated! I’d like to do it with as many people as possible so we can all get to meet and I can tell you exciting stuff about this story and/or others I may or may not have in the making. It would be lovely if y’all agreed!
> 
> I love you all so much! Thank you for your patience and support! Stay safe, okay?
> 
> All my love, Rena.

"Nobody is coming in or out of this neighborhood until we find this baby, is that clear?"

Saying things had been hectic was an understatement.

Chloe had called Dan immediately after officer Anderson told her that a woman had come up to him and told him her baby was missing, and considering the fact that the victim's child had been a kidnapped child herself, well... they had many reasons to believe both cases had something to do with each other.

After a lot of arguing and reproaching, Dan cleared Chloe and Lucifer to blow their cover and take on their duty as law enforcement. Chloe being the one with the highest rank, was the one chosen to take on the lead, bossing people around like she was so used to.

With her badge hooked on her belt and her gun on its holster, she approached the woman that had told the officer her baby was missing.

"Katherine Wallace? Detective Chloe Decker, LAPD. This is Lucifer Morningstar, my partner and civilian consultant. We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions," she introduced herself to Katherine, who looked shocked, to say the least, that their new neighbors were the cops.

"Patrick? Sophia?" She asked them confusedly, to which Chloe flashed her badge.

"We were undercover to try and help with Rebecca's case. We solved it now but we have reason to believe your baby's disappearance has something to do with Rebecca's death," Chloe explains herself, acting professionally.

"Why... why is that?" She wondered.

"I'm afraid we can't disclose that information. When was the last time you saw your baby?" She pulled out a notepad from one of Lucifer's pockets.

"I... Right around the time the cops arrived I went back into my house. I placed David on his bassinet and I just... I went to get a glass of water and by the time I came back he was gone," Katherine was sobbing profusely, being contained by her husband who was rubbing her back lovingly. "I thought maybe Mark had taken him to his room but then he told me he hadn't and I freaked out,"

"Does this neighborhood have any kind of vigilance system? Cameras, guards?" She asked again.

"We do have those, one of the officers is retrieving the tapes from the vigilance room," Willow walked up to them, looking disappointed in everything that had happened. "Thank you for solving our beloved Rebecca's death. We hope you can find David as well,"

"No one is leaving this place until we do, you can rest assured," Lucifer told her with his usual charm in his voice.

"Since you were quick to report him missing and the guard at the front gate hasn't seen anyone go out of the neighborhood after the cops came in, we are positive he's still in here. We just have to find him," Chloe sighed deeply, starting to feel the weight of the day on her body, especially her lower back. "Did anyone ever seem suspicious to you? Someone who maybe took too much interest on your baby or something like that?"

"No, not really. David is a newborn, everyone's been pretty interested and excited about him; today was our first outing ever since he was born," Katherine lost her composure and broke down crying again, hugging her husband.

"Someone you didn't know all too well that showed up to Rebecca's grieving gathering, perhaps?" Lucifer spoke, noticing Chloe's discomfort. "Apart from ourselves, that is,"

"We've been living here for ten years, we literally know everybody and no one was out of place, except for you guys," spoke Katherine's husband, Mark.

"Thank you, and know we'll do everything we can to find your son," Chloe told the woman, receiving a nod on her side before grabbing Lucifer by the arm and pulling him away.

"I'm afraid this child kidnapper may be after you or our children. I swear on dad's name, Daniel is going to hear me once this is over," Lucifer said, placing his hands on her growing belly.

"Calm down, Lucifer. Dan had no way to know this case would involve a child kidnapper and I still have a long way to go. This son of a bitch will be behind bars way before Claire and August get here," she lovingly raised her hand to cup his cheek, feeling him as he leaned into the touch. He couldn't help it but be mad at Daniel, he had been the one to suggest all that charade, and he might as well be the very same reason why the love of his life and his children could be in danger.

"Did someone approach you? About the pregnancy?" He asked her, letting his hands go to her waist to pull her closer to him, to feel her warmth.

"We didn't get to meet that many people," she said, softly stroking her thumb against the devil's five o'clock shade. "Only Willow, Katherine and Rebecca's husband, and best friend,"

"We need to talk to that Allan guy. I don't want to have you here any longer than you need to be," he swiftly moved so he'd be by her side, and with a hand on the small of her back he guided her towards their car, set on meeting and questioning Rebecca's husband.

"Lucifer, the kidnapper might as well have missed me, we can't be too sure it was him," Chloe tried to reason with the Prince of Darkness, but by then she had learned that when the devil set his mind on something, there was no way to get him over it until it was done.

"But we can start with the man whose child was robbed from her biological parents," Lucifer parked the car behind a police patrol, getting ready to question his suspect. He felt that instinctive need, that pull, of getting his family out of there. It was primal, almost like fear. "And oh, casually, both the adoptive and biological families live in the same neighborhood,"

"Lucifer, you need to calm down. We can't do anything if you're like this," Chloe tried to reason with him, she could see how much he was struggling.

"I won't calm down until I get _my family_ to a safe place where there isn't someone roaming the neighborhood and stealing infants," he scowled and opened the car door, going straight towards the house. Chloe sighed, following him at a much slower pace.

"Anderson, I need to talk to the victim's husband," the devil started, right before Chloe caught up to him.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't let you in, Lucifer. Not without approval," the officer said and Lucifer was just about to protest when Chloe finally came to a halt beside him.

"Let him. We both need to talk to him," Anderson looked at Chloe with doubt in his eyes, noticing the state Lucifer was in.

"Okay, detective," he moved aside and Lucifer walked past him, with Chloe still trailing behind. She was fed up with him being like that. She understood he was afraid and protective of what was his but fear was always one of the reasons why things went wrong. They were juggling with the life of a newborn baby, they couldn't afford to make a mistake.

"Lucifer," Chloe grabbed him by the wrist, stopping him on his tracks. He turned around to face her, letting his eyes flash red for the briefest fraction of a second. "I know you're angry but I only let you get past Anderson because I know this scares you," she talked to him, trying to get him to calm down. "We can't make a single mistake here, there's a baby's life on the line. And yes, I know I'm also eight months pregnant with half-angel twins, I know, but we're the ones that can do something here," she caught his other wrist on her hands.

"I don't want anything to happen to you," and Chloe knew he wasn't talking about her only.

"I know you don't, and I don't either. But we're going to be just fine," she smiled at him, trying to be reassuring. "Hell, even if this kidnapper tried to cut me open to steal them... Even then we would be safe,"

They had discovered about a week before, that Chloe was borderline indestructible by then. She had tried to cut herself on the arm to test her theory —with Lucifer's supervision, of course—, sliding the knife on the back of her forearm and not even drawing a drop of blood. The knife managed to puncture her skin, though, but as it slid down her forearm, the wound would close itself up around the blade of the knife. By then they finally realized how glad they had to be that both August and Claire were head down because a C-section was just not viable, given that Chloe would heal immediately after an injury.

"While that does make me feel more at ease, it doesn't mean we should stay here," he frowned, still not sure about everything going on.

"We're going to be just fine, okay? Let me ask all the questions," Lucifer gave Chloe a reluctant nod before heading inside the house, willing to let her do all the detective work.

"Patrick, Sophia. What are you doing here? How did you get past the cops?" Allan asked them with tears in his eyes, hugging his little girl who was still asleep.

"Detective Chloe Decker, LAPD," she flashed him her badge, seeing how the new information dawned on him. "I'm in charge of the entire operation here. This is my partner and civilian consultant, Lucifer Morningstar. We wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your daughter's adoption," Chloe took the liberty to walk over to him and sit on that same couch.

"H-how? I don't understand," he said conflicted, pulling Felicity closer to his chest.

"We were on an undercover mission to find out what happened to your wife. Sienna Jones confessed to Rebecca's murder and accused her of stealing her daughter from her when she was one year old. Facial recognition software done with Felicity's passport picture and the one Sienna submitted to us when her daughter, Riley, disappeared match completely. A DNA test would only confirm our findings," Chloe spoke and Allan sighed.

"We want to know everything there is to know about your daughter's 'adoption' so we can find the missing infant and get out of here. I don't want detective Decker to be our kidnapper's next target," Lucifer said, letting his emotions show through his words.

"Under which circumstances did you and your wife adopt Felicity?" Chloe gave Lucifer a sympathetic look, turning back to Allan and trying to not show how scared she actually was. Only thinking about someone taking her babies away from her was making a shiver down run her spine.

"Rebecca and I always struggled with infertility," Allan wiped a tear out of his face, trying to compose himself. "We had been trying to get pregnant for years before we eventually gave up and decided adoption was the way to go," he looked down at his sleeping daughter; the main thoughts inside his head being the fear of having her taken away from him. She was all he had left. "We'd started our adoption paperwork and three months later Rebecca surprised me, coming home with Fizzy in her arms,"

"So you didn't know she had been stolen from her biological parents?" Lucifer interceded, earning a sharp look from his beloved.

"Of course I didn't! She... Rebecca had all the paperwork, her birth and adoption certificates, her passport. She was ours," he pulled even closer to his chest, fearing he'd lose her.

"Excuse me, Allan," Lucifer leaned on closer to him and he was immediately caught under his spell. Chloe didn't even bother to try and stop him, they needed to know whether he was telling the truth or not. "Tell me, what is it you really want, huh? That thing you desire the most in this life?"

"I..." he stuttered, not understanding what was going on inside his head.

"Come on, tell me," Lucifer insisted.

"I... I want my daughter to not be taken away from me," and he broke down crying again, hugging his daughter so tightly that he managed to wake her up.

"Daddy?" The little girl asked confusedly, noticing all the cops inside her living room. She hugged her father tighter, hiding her face from the commotion.

"Did Rebecca have any personal devices? Like a laptop or a cellphone?" Chloe asked him, deciding they already knew all they needed to know about the adoption.

"Yeah, she did. I've already given her laptop and cellphone to the cops," Chloe nodded, hoping something in there would lead them to where that poor little baby was.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Allan," Chloe thanked him and stood up, letting her hands immediately go to her own lower back to help her manage her back pain.

"Darling, why don't you ask for the computer and we go back to the house? You can search from there, you'll be more comfortable," Lucifer suggested, leading Chloe out of the house.

"Normally I would say no but my back is killing me. Anderson!" Poor officer Anderson had to be at everyone's service.

"Yes, boss?" He approached her with ease.

"I need the victim's computer and cellphone, and I'm going back to the house to check for anything there, see if Ella can access the computer remotely,"

"I'm on it," he quickly sprinted towards one of the patrols parked in front of the victim's house and retrieved what Chloe had asked for, being quick to bring them to her.

"Thank you," she took the computer and cellphone. "Measures taken are the same, no one gets in or out of this place unless it's backup. I want a lot of eyes on the entrances and exits and even more eyes searching the place for the baby,"

"Got it, Decker. See if you can catch some rest, we got it," Chloe had never been more thankful to have such an amazing team working alongside her.

After giving Anderson a small nod, serving as a thank you, the detective and the devil left to the house they had been assigned to. While the undercover stakeout had lasted way less than they originally thought, the security and atmosphere around the place had taken a one-eighty and for the worst. Now more than ever they wanted that case to be over with, not only because of Chloe and the twins’ safety but also because a family was missing their child as they spoke. They needed to find him, they needed to do right by them.

"Okay, so, I'll check the computer, you check the cellphone?" Chloe suggested once they were inside the house, making a beeline to the couch.

"None of that," Lucifer snatched the computer and cellphone out of Chloe's grasp and didn't even flinch when she gave him her usual stern look.

"Lucifer, we need to find this kid," Chloe argued.

"And we will, but you need to rest,"

"Babe, I'm in charge of the whole operation here, I can't just go to sleep," Lucifer could be even more of a pain in the ass when an idea got inside his head.

"Yes, but you're also eight months pregnant with twins, and you can't lie to me, you don't feel well. That's why I made an effort and called the douche you have for an ex-husband," it was so sweet that he felt worried, but it also made Chloe want to punch him really hard on the face. Hormones during pregnancy could make someone truly unpredictable.

"Dan's coming? Who's staying with Trixie then?" She really didn't mind the fact that Daniel was coming. Having the situation been different she would've been yelling at Lucifer by then. Right now she just needed some rest, though, and she really didn't want to turn the offer down.

"Maze and Eve are going to our house to spend the night with her. Fear not, detective, I have everything under control," he approached her softly and he lovingly pulled two strands of hair that had fallen on his detective's beautiful face, placing a small kiss on her forehead afterward. "Go take a bath, try to relax. You need it and you deserve it," 

"Can you call Ella and ask her if she can access the computer remotely? We need as many hands on this as possible," it was the detective in her, always trying to do as much as humanly possible.

"I will. Now chop chop, there's a tub and a relaxing bath waiting for you," she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips softly, smiling as a way of saying thank you. 

"I love you, you're the best," Lucifer cracked a small laugh.

"I know,"

And with that Chloe left towards the second floor of the house, ready to get as much rest as humanly possible while the devil and her ex-husband handled the case for the night. 

The devil was quick to call Miss Lopez and follow her instructions so she could access Rebecca's computer from the precinct. They had a software that allowed them to dig into the computer's files far quicker and more efficiently than he would’ve been able to, and time was their most important resource as of then. They needed to find that little boy.

It wasn't much later than that when Daniel's car pulled up in front of the house they were in. Detective douche sighed the moment he got out of his cruiser, knowing what he was up against when he faced Lucifer.

He knocked on the door, trying to foresee what Lucifer's reaction to his presence was. 

"My my, you have broken your douchimeter with all of this," he was surprisingly calm; his only concern being that his detective got a good night's rest. "It's gone past the max it can read,"

"And you have no idea how sorry I am for that," Daniel started.

"You are aware that Chloe's eight months pregnant and stuck in a neighborhood with a child kidnapper, right? Because if you're not I'm going to make sure you understand," the look in Lucifer's eyes was diametrically opposite to how his voice sounded; it was mostly calm, in a reasonable volume, but his eyes... they held so much hatred, so much fear. And only a few people knew how much scarier Lucifer was when he was scared.

"I am, you don't need to make me feel bad. I'm awful. I should've never gotten you guys into this," Lucifer nodded; semblance so scary it was making the hairs on Daniel's nape stand up.

"Good. And, for your information, the only reason I'm not unleashing my hatred for you right now is that Chloe just went to sleep, and I really don't want to wake her," Dan had never been terrified of him like some people he'd seen, he had never seen the danger in the devil's usually soft eyes, but right then he felt as if Hell was staring back at him.

"I'm going to make it up for you guys, I promise," he stuttered a bit, something that didn't go by unnoticed by the devil.

Lucifer was about to answer to Daniel's claim when a knock on the door interrupted him, getting the entirety of his attention. There was nothing he would want more than getting his family out of there, and if that knock meant they would be getting closer to his ultimate goal, he would gladly postpone his little chat with Daniel.

"Mr. Morningstar, hello again," Willow was on the other side of the door, smiling tightly and uncomfortably. "Is detective Decker around? We have news on the security camera footage,"

"I'm afraid she's done for the night, but I'm here and so is detective Espinoza," he said his last name with a hint of disgust, unable to control his emotions. "He's a bit of a douche and just a tad irresponsible but he will suffice,"

"Okay," Willow said, not entirely convinced. She handed the devil a thumb drive. "Those are all the tapes from five o'clock 'till now. The cameras stopped filming at around eight but our surveillance team was able to get them back up about fifteen minutes later,"

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Jacksonville. We appreciate your help," Lucifer thanked her, trying to put on his biggest yet fakest smile. "Is there anything else you may need?

"Yeah, I... I was just wondering... You really care about that detective, right?" Willow asked, looking a bit unsure. It had really hurt the fact that police had faked the lives of Patrick and Sophia Longwood, and they couldn't help it but feel a little bit disappointed, even if they managed to solve Rebecca’s case. 

"I do. I care about her very much, why do you ask?"

"Take care of her, alright? Catch this bastard. I don't wish the pain of losing a child on anyone, and I'm sure detective Decker wouldn't want that to happen to her baby," Willow smiled small, trying to be somewhat reassuring. 

"Rest assured, Willow. As long as I'm alive no one will lay a finger on either her or our children, and given the fact that I'm immortal, that's, well... A lot of time," Willow looked at him weirdly but then again, she had her moment to think he was nuts when they first introduced themselves to her, so she couldn't really be any more surprised. 

"Call me if you need anything else," she lovingly patted his arm and took a step back, heading out towards her own home. 

"The kidnapper could have stopped all cameras from recording to steal the baby. We need to send this to Ella," Daniel brought Lucifer back to reality by stealing the thumb drive from his hand. L

"A pretty easy deduction, indeed," Lucifer said, walking over to sit on the couch, right beside the douche. Dan plugged the thumb drive on Rebecca's computer and quickly opened the video files on it, searching for something Lucifer hadn't thought about just yet. 

"The cameras stopped working right around when we went to Sienna's house to arrest her. This can't be a coincidence,

"That's pretty clever on our kidnapper's side; use the commotion created by the police to steal the infant," Lucifer took a look at the screen, finding that all recording from all the cameras stopped right at the same time. "When do they get back on?"

"Just like the woman said, about fifteen minutes later," Dan pulled up the video from the front gate, watching how a car went towards it but ultimately decided against it, turning around and going back into the neighborhood.

"Well, that isn't suspicious at all," Police cars were already blocking the entryway to the neighborhood; reasonable behavior would have been lowering the window and asking the cops why they couldn't get out, not just straight up turning away and going backward. 

"Ella?" Dan pulled his phone up to his ear. "I need you to run this plate number," He sent her the plate number from Rebecca's computer, being rather quick and efficient, something Lucifer didn't think Dan had in him. "No, she isn't, but Lucifer's here," he settled the phone on the coffee table before them and put it on speakers. 

"Okay, so, I made the software go through all the files in the computer " she stalled a bit, giving her findings a bit more depth. “And I found this. It’s a full confession and it’s titled ‘Open only if dead’. That’s not creepy at all,”

“Open it,” Dan asked of her and a video file opened by itself on Rebecca’s laptop. Dan pressed play on it.

“ _Today is August 13th, 2016. My name is Rebecca Conti and if you managed to find this video, it means I’m dead,_ ” a younger version of Rebecca said, looking straight into the camera. She had been a really beautiful woman. “ _All I want to say now is I’m sorry. I want to apologize to whomever it was that lost their baby girl, and I want them to know that Allan and I are taking great care of her; she’s growing up to be a beautiful little soul,” she teared up, looking to the side as if_ a baby version of Felicity had been there. “ _I’m tied from hands and feet, I can’t get myself out of the position I am in now,”_ she sighs, getting ready to spill all the truth in her video. “ _Felicity came to me as a gift from a friend I believed worked with child protection services. I naïvely thought he had just helped Allan and I out by making our paperwork easier, that he was just being a good friend to us, but later I came to find out I was neck-deep into a child-snatching ring,”_ she was trying not to cry so hard it was gut-wrenching. “ _A couple of months after Allan and I got Felicity, this friend came to me and asked me if I knew of any infant or young toddler to be around, maybe one of my neighbors, maybe one of my friends. I asked why he had asked that of me, and he then told me what his business was all about... I don’t remember much from that conversation but I do remember he threatened me with taking Felicity away from me, and that if I wanted to keep her I’d better do as he said,”_ the first tear broke through her eyes, sliding down her cheek. “ _Every once in a while he would ask me to find suitable people that had babies or young toddlers so he could steal them and sell them into adoption. He wouldn’t do it repeatedly, maybe only once a year, he isn’t stupid, but every single time I would feel obliged to compel to him because otherwise, I would be putting my own baby girl at risk,”_ another sigh; a couple more tears. “ _And so I did. And I feel awful about that and I want to apologize to all the parents that lost their children because of me. And I’m a coward, I’m so aware of that... but I needed to know my baby girl would never be away from me, and that, I don’t regret. Now that I’m dead, now that I’ve been the one that was taken away from my baby girl, I’m free to tell you who this man is and to ask you... to beg you, that you bring him into justice,”_ Rebecca carefully wipes the tears off her face and with as much hatred as she possibly could, she voiced the name of the man. “ _His name is Jason Dempsey, the man who had been my best friend for over twenty years, the man I told all my secrets to. Bring him into justice, don’t do what I did and let him keep breaking families apart,”_ with one last, heavy, emotional sigh, Rebecca from 2016 gave the camera a tight smile and proceeded to turn it off, ending the video.

“Could he be there with you guys?” They heard Ella ask from the other side of the line. The room had been submerged into the tightest, most deep and painful silence. 

“I mean... I don’t think it’s a coincidence. His insider dies and a baby goes missing around the same time?” Dan said, all while Lucifer remained terrifyingly quiet. Daniel had never experienced one on one time working with the devil on a difficult case, and already, from the little glimpse he had taken of him as a partner, he could totally say he was a little freaked out.

“What are you going to do?” Ella’s voice is heard again.

“For now I think we’ll ask around the neighborhood and see if someone other than Allan and Rebecca knew him, see if—” he doesn’t get to finish his plan before Lucifer speaks.

“We’re going to go out there and get that bastard,” the devil said, and a shiver ran down both Dan and Ella’s spines. A little bit of his demonic voice had filtered through along with his words, so it made him sound even scarier than he was. 

“What are you doing, man?” Dan questioned him the minute Lucifer swiftly ended the call with Ella.

“Pull up the security camera videos, the bastard’s in here,” he says briefly. Dan was, needless to say, a little freaked out.

“How do you know?”

“Chloe and I saw him at the party. He even had the nerve to...” he lets his eyes flash red just from thinking about it, just from remembering their encounter. The fact that Daniel didn’t catch him was pure luck. “He asked Chloe how far along she was, he took interest on... on my children,” 

“Lucifer, I’m so sorry for having put you through this, I know—” he tried, but failed.

“Not now, Daniel,” Lucifer took the security footage and looked for the video of the car pulling up towards the gate and then turning around and leaving.

“The car is registered to a Jason Dempsey from Beverly Hills,” Daniel casually commented, looking at a text Ella had just sent him. Lucifer was so focused and set on catching this guy it was unsettling to see. “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to see where he went after he saw he couldn’t get out,” a Lucifer answered with his voice completely flat but still deep; so angry his blood was boiling.

“There,” Dan pointed out one of the small frames; the car coming to a halt at one of the houses at the furthest end of the neighborhood. “The car’s still there, he probably still has the baby. Come on,” when Dan stood up, ready to leave and face the criminal, he was shown a side of Lucifer he still didn’t know how to deal with. “Man, what are you doing?”

Wordlessly and with his blood burning through his veins, he made his way towards the back exit, not without grabbing a knife from the kitchen in the process. Dan couldn’t tell if it was just his usual _Luciferness_ or if he was seriously troubled.

“Lucifer, I can’t deal with this right now. Are you coming or not?”

And yet again, the only thing Lucifer did was what his gut told him to do: leave the house through the back exit with a knife on his hand. However, when Dan went after him to see what he was up to, he faced a completely empty backyard.

If he had been a little less angry he would have rejoiced a bit on the feeling of flying, he would have paid attention to the wind going through his feathers as he elevated himself up in the air, he would have thought of how much he had missed doing that. However, the only thing on his mind was getting his family out of there and that little baby boy back to his parents, and that was what he was going to do. 

He put his wings away with a swift motion the moment he landed on the porch of the furthest house of the neighborhood, bringing the kitchen knife to the inside of his wrist to test if Chloe was far away enough from him. The smile that crept up his face when not a single drop of blood was drawn could have scared even the vilest of men.

“Oh Jason!” He said humorlessly, waltzing over to the front door and kicking it. Needless to say, the door got knocked out of its hinges.

He could hear rustling inside the house, as if someone were hurriedly trying to get away from a threat.

“You know, I thought someone like you would’ve been far more intelligent,” he was speaking loudly enough to make sure he would hear him, walking warily around the house. “I don’t understand how someone who’s been kidnapping infants for years would be stupid enough to do so when he is completely surrounded by law enforcement,”

He heard the clicking of a gun and smiled, liking the fact that things had become just that little bit more interesting.

“And maybe you could’ve gotten away with it, police are known to be useless,” he could still hear him moving. “But tough luck I was here, and I mean it because when you threaten _my family_... you don’t get to live the rest of your life at peace,” and then he stepped into a small study the house had, finally facing the criminal in question. He looked to be out of his comfort zone, like he didn’t know what he should do, so the gun he had in hand he immediately pointed it at the devil. “Oh! Scary,”

“One more step and I shoot,” his right hand was shakingly holding the hand that was pointing at him while his left one held a sleeping baby boy close to his chest. “I mean it you ass, back off!”

“You see, Jason, I don’t think we’ve met yet. Let me introduce myself,” he said calmly, leaning over a wall.

“Oh, we met already. You’re that new neighbor... Patrick, could it be?” Jason said, looking to be out of his mind. “Nice little lady you’ve got there. If I were you I’d walk right out that door if you ever want to see her or your kid again,”

“Oh, so you’re good at stealing children but you’re not so good at negotiating, are you?” Lucifer teased, knowing he could easily get to him any time he wanted. 

“I’m the one with the gun and just for saying that... even if you walk out of here you’re never seeing your kid again,” at that, Lucifer’s first instinct was to throw himself at the man and rip his throat open with his own teeth. However, when he really assessed the situation, he realized he was in a much better position than Jason was and that, no matter what Jason did right then, he would always end up in either jail or Hell. He could easily decide which one was worse.

“See, you’re not going to get to do that,” the devil said with a dangerous tone to his voice, letting the beast in him show through it.

“And who’s gonna stop me? You? An asshole that clearly doesn’t see when he’s in danger? I don’t think so,” Lucifer was so calm it was terrifying. If only Jason knew of everything he was capable of. “I wonder how much money I’d make from selling your kid,” he teased the devil, and Lucifer almost lost it. Almost. “With parents like you and that pretty wife of yours? Probably up to a million,” Lucifer laughed. He actually let a laugh escape the confinement of his lips, realizing just how clueless Jason was.

“You know? You’re probably right,” he agreed, walking just a confident step closer. “I bet Patrick Longwood would be scared shitless by now, he would’ve probably assumed he was dead. He wouldn’t even know why he thought coming in here was a good idea in the first place,” hearing him talk about himself in the third person made Jason shiver. “Tough luck, I guess, because I’m not Patrick,” he took another step forward, looking at his own nails. The gun had never been put down, it was still pointing at him and aiming for his heart.

“You are delusional, mate,” Jason voiced.

“Nope,” one would think the sound of the ‘P’ would take the seriousness and threat out of the conversation but it didn’t. “I’m Lucifer Morningstar, and you’re going to regret having done this until the day you die,” one step closer. “And after that... for the rest of eternity,” Lucifer said with confidence, showing himself completely calm, while Jason chose to stay silent. “You could do hundreds of things right now. You could try to escape, you could kill yourself, you could try to kill me... And yet, no matter which option you pick, you’ll always end up losing,”

“Back off you freak, I mean it,” Jason brought his finger to the trigger, and Lucifer remained completely unmoved.

“You know, Jason, there’s something I never got to ask you,” one step closer. Clearly Jason was too focused on their conversation to even notice Lucifer had been approaching. “What is it you really want, huh? What is the deepest, darkest desire that little, twisted mind of yours has?”

“I...I,” he stuttered, being easily caught on the devil’s tongue. “I want...”

“Yes, what is it that you want?” He pushed him, and Jason finally fell.

“To watch the families break, to watch parents break as they broke me,” he said and Lucifer quickly let the hold on him go, letting him realize what he had just said.

“Daddy issues, I should have guessed,” he murmured.

“What did you just do to me?!” Jason was losing it, and the fact that the baby on his arms wasn’t waking up from his constant yelling had to be telling.

“I guess someone just had to let it all out, it seems,” the devil smirked playfully, toying his prey, playing with him.

“You had a chance to leave man, now I just gotta take you out,” the grip on the gun got stronger as Jason’s pointer fingers suited itself on the trigger, pointing right at Lucifer’s heart.

“Well, then. If that’s what you want to do...”

He shot him and the bullet bounced off of his chest, falling flat and rounded to the floor.

“W-what?” Jason stuttered, walking backward and away from the devil.

“Oh Jason, darling. I told you you would regret it,” Jason shot him again, numerous times, but the only result he got was making holes on Lucifer’s black polo tee shirt, not drawing out a single drop of blood from him.

“Who are you?” He asked once all the bullets inside his gun were lying flat on the floor.

“I think, my darling, that the question you’re looking for is more of a ‘what’ rather than a ‘who’,” he approached him once again, cornering him against a bookcase. Jason was sweating profusely, drenched in his own fear, in his guilt, loosening his grip on both the gun and the baby. “Don’t drop the baby,”

And with that, he flashed him his devil face, making him scream in fear and terror as his left arm completely loosened the grip on the tiny one-month-old. Lucifer almost didn’t catch him as the tiny little thing fell to the floor, but in one swift motion the newborn was now in his arms, fitting almost perfectly against his chest.

“LAPD, Jason Dempsey, you are under arrest for kidnap—” Daniel stooped talking once he saw the situation before him.

Lucifer was quick to turn around, uncomfortable as Hell from having such a brittle and defenseless creature cradled in his arms, all while Jason fell down to his knees, mumbling something completely incoherent and crying his eyes out. No one could discern what he was saying but it sounded like a prayer that let all his fear and guilt show through his voice.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please... don’t kill me,” he begged, talking clearly.

“Oh, no, I won’t kill you. I’ll do something far, far worse: leaving you to live the rest of your life drowning in your own guilt, all so my dear brother can take care of you... later,” his voice was full of poison both towards him and his brother, but at least he was glad the baby was unharmed. 

“Lucifer, what the hell? What did you do to him?” Dan approached Jason and cuffed him all while making sure he was completely unharmed.

“Nothing, I just think someone’s feeling a little guilty, that’s all,” and it was right after saying those words that his eyes finally made it to the tiny human sleeping in his arms.

“How did you get here so fast?” He asked as he brought Jason to his feet; the grown man still crying and praying unintelligibly. “What did you do to him? Why is he like this?” He asked again.

“Daniel, I’m afraid we have another problem far more important than that moron’s conscience,” he brought his eyes back down to the tiny baby boy.

“What?” He asked with annoyance filtering through his voice.

“The child slept through seven gunshots and didn’t even wake up when Jason dropped him. I think he’s under something,” the little baby was breathing slowly and evenly, he looked to be peacefully asleep.

“Shit,” Dan said as he pulled his transmisor out of his back pocket and brought it up to his mouth. “This is unit 672 requesting an ambo to Beverly Park for an infant under drugs. Can you stay with him?” He turned to Lucifer to ask that last question.

“Is it entirely necessary?” He looked at the child in question with a bit of uncertainty, not knowing how he had managed to hold him for so long.

“Man, you’re getting two of those pretty soon. You better get practicing,” Dan dismissed his uncertainty, going over to check on the infant.

“I know I’m getting two of these but those are mine. This child...” he was borderline disgusted.

“Just make sure he doesn’t stop breathing,” he handed Jason to another officer and turned back to Lucifer, wanting to know what the fuck had happened in there. “Now, care to explain what happened here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” He was so uncomfortable with that baby in his arms. “That asshole got what he deserved,”

“Yeah, and the seven gunshots all this wing of the neighborhood heard?”

“Well, he did shoot me,” he was never going to stop telling the truth, and the truth was that six out of seven bullets collided with his chest.

“Yeah, sure,” Daniel dismissed him, getting his attention caught by one of the extremely flat bullets laying on the floor. “You know, Lucifer? I can’t deal with all your _Luciferness_ right now. There’s a baby that’s under who knows what, an entire neighborhood surrounded by cops and we just caught someone that’s probably on a baby-snatching ring, I can’t...” and then, his eyes wandered to one of the holes on Lucifer’s polo shirt.

If he had been wearing his usual three-piece suits, he would have been able to cover the gunshot holes all over his chest, but considering he was only wearing a tee-shirt, well... Let’s say the holes up top on his chest were quite visible. Luckily, the baby in his arms covered the ones on his abdomen.

“What the Hell?” He poked his finger through the hole right underneath Lucifer’s collarbone.

“I told you, he shot me,” he said simply, moving away from the touch. “I’d show you the other five I have but I’m afraid I don’t know how to move this thing without risking snapping his neck,”

“You’re not wearing a bulletproof vest, that can’t be,” a look of realization, a look he had seen only once in his detective’s face, fell upon the douche. He was actually considering that maybe, only maybe, everything Lucifer had told them over the three years he’d been working at the precinct was true.

“Bloody hell,” he hesitated, not knowing what to do. Maybe it was time detective douche finally learned the truth, and although the devil didn’t care about him all that much, it still scared him the reaction he might have, the measures he could take upon learning the truth, upon learning that he had been the devil for a really long time, upon discerning between what was the actual truth and what humanity had told themselves about him. “Let’s get you out of here, Daniel,”

And with that, Lucifer handed the baby to an officer inside the house and carefully guided Daniel out of it, walking towards the car and preparing himself for the conversation he would have to have.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Question time here: which was your favorite chapter to read so far? That’s a question that’s been bugging my mind for a while hahaha. 
> 
> My favorite one to read was chapter 10, when Chloe and Lucifer first talk about the pregnancy, and my favorite to write I haven’t written it yet but I have a feeling it’ll be very emotional for me! 
> 
> Remember to tell me what you think about the zoom call and if you’re up to it or not! I wanna make sure there’s a big chunk of people up to it!
> 
> Lots of love!


	23. Chapter XXIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, sooo, a little bit shorter than what you’re used to but I really liked how it turned out. I wanted to keep it with as little drama as possible.
> 
> Regarding the Zoom call, we’re not doing it. Very few of you seemed to be on board with the idea and I don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable, so I chose not to do it and keep interacting through the comments!
> 
> Thank you so much for 17k+ hits and 700+ kudos! I seriously can’t deal with your amazingness, keep it up! 
> 
> Okay, so remember when I said this would be 25 parts long with epilogue? Well, make that 33, if nothing crazy occurs to me before finishing it (which I hope doesn’t happen). I hope you’ll read this even if it turns into a word monster, I’ll be glad if you do!
> 
> A lot’s been going on in my life (namely, finding out I may have a lost, 33 year old sister living in Australia), so I don’t really know how long it’ll take me to write next chapter. It may be a couple of days or up to a week, or maybe even more. Besides, my birthday’s on Thursday and I’m doing something small here with the family I live with, so even less time there! Sorry!
> 
> And well, that’s kind of it. I hope you like this chapter and if you do, tell me about it in the comments, please! I crave them!
> 
> Stay safe and stand up for yourselves and for those who can’t. Say their names.
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Daniel had not spoken a word ever since Lucifer pulled him out of the furthest house from the neighborhood. A lot of theories, a lot of questions were going through his mind. Everything that could justify why Lucifer had six, clearly round-shaped, bullet sized holes on his polo shirt without having been shot had crossed his mind already, yet he would refuse to believe the most obvious answer.

Lucifer had always been outspoken about his identity, about his beginnings and his past, he always answered the truth when asked. The thing was, while telling his truth made him feel like he was adhering to his principles, it still wasn't enough. No one in their right mind would ever believe he was the actual devil. At most, they would think he was delusional, deranged, maybe that it was part of a persona he had created for himself —much like Miss Lopez believed—, but no one would believe him just with his words, they would need proof. That was when things got a little bit tricky, when he actually had to show people who really was. Doing that meant that the human in question would actually start believing him, and maybe, only maybe, he took refuge in the fact that when just telling his truth, he knew people wouldn't believe him. It would take the seriousness, the importance, out of the subject.

By far, the most difficult reveal he had ever gone through had been Chloe's. It had been so heartbreaking, knowing that she was afraid of him and dealing with all that her fear entailed. He got hurt, he healed, and then he got hurt again and ultimately it brought them to where they were standing now, but it had still been painful, nonetheless.

Theoretically speaking, revealing his true self to Daniel would be the easiest of them all. He didn't really care much for the douche, but come to think about it, he really did care for spawn número uno, who happened to be his daughter. He was positive Chloe would never let Dan take Trixie away from him, much less when the child herself had been the first one to find out and the one that took it the best. Lucifer cared about her, about their step devil and stepdaughter relationship, he would even dare to say he loved her just as much as he loved his unborn babies, he didn't want to lose her.

So yeah, all in all, the conversation that was about to fall upon them would be a tough one.

"Lucifer, where were you? You had me worried sick," Chloe reprimanded him the minute he entered the house, still guiding a silent and hesitant Daniel around. "What happened?"

"Why are you not in bed, darling?" He questions her, bringing Dan towards the couch and letting him sit on it.

"I got up to get a glass of water and I noticed you weren't here. The cops aren't around anymore, what's going on?"

"We caught him," Daniel finally spoke, looking at Chloe and avoiding Lucifer at all costs.

"You did? How?" That was why she hated taking naps; she was asleep for an hour and people already solved her case. "Why didn't you wake me?"

"Rebecca left an entire confession on her computer. Her best friend, Jason, was on a baby-snatching ring," Lucifer explained, pouring a glass of water and being generous enough to bring it to Dan. "And well, I didn't wake you up because of obvious reasons," he handed the glass to Dan and stood straight, letting her see all the gunshot holes on his tee-shirt.

"Lucifer, oh my god," she tried to keep it in, she really did, and she didn't miss the grimace Lucifer made at his father's mention. "Are you insane? Why did you go in there alone? Did you go in alone?" Chloe stood up and placed her hands on his cheeks, checking for any injuries.

"Need I remind you, darling, that I wouldn't be here if you'd gone with me?" He said softly, carefully pulling a strand of her out of her face. Chloe pouted slightly, still not used to the fact that he was more useful when she wasn't around. "However, we have bigger problems at hand,"

"How so?" And then Chloe laid her eyes on Dan, who was staring off into space and thinking. They could hear his thoughts roaming through his head from how hard he was trying not to succumb into accepting the most obvious answer. "Oh," she mumbled as she was hit with the realization that there was no reasonable way to explain the holes on Lucifer's shirt. "Dan, Dan, are you here?" She shook him out of his trance, bringing his blue eyes to stare at her.

"Yeah, yeah, just..." he took a peek at Lucifer's chest, where most of the holes were, before looking back at Chloe.

"I'm assuming you have many questions right now and, putting our differences aside, I'm willing to truthfully answer each and every one of them," Lucifer said as he sat down opposite to Daniel, giving him his space.

"Do we...?" Chloe said hesitant, sitting down beside Dan to bring him emotional support. If they were about to do what she thought they were about to do, he would sure as hell need it.

"Yes," Lucifer sighed. "I really don't want to and don't know how to, but he's freaking out and he'll keep at it if we don't do something,"

"Dan," Chloe started. "What's going on? What are you feeling right now?" Chloe tried, being far better at handling human emotions than Lucifer was.

"I..." Dan stuttered, focusing his eyes back on the holes on Lucifer's shirt. "I don't know,"

"It has something to do with the holes on Lucifer's tee shirt, right?" She kept at it, pushing him further. Dan only gave them a tight and small nod. "You are trying to find an explanation for them, aren't you?"

"Yes," he mumbled, taking a look at them once again. They looked awfully similar to bullet holes.

"And what do you think they might be?" Chloe was so soft and understanding. Lucifer could only wish she had been like that with herself, too, back when she first found out.

"I... I don't know. Th-they can't be from bullets, Chlo. He's not wearing a bulletproof vest," Chloe smiled sympathetically at him, knowing all too well what he was going through.

"You're right, he isn't. Then, what are they?" It felt as if she were trying to teach a child about something difficult.

"I don't know," Daniel sighed, resisting from allowing the most obvious answer to enter his mind.

"What we're going to tell you now is something you've heard tons and tons of times," Chloe sighed this time, letting on how truly overwhelmed she actually was. "I know of this. Trixie and Linda do, too, and we're all okay with it,"

"Daniel, I'm going to ask you to not think about everything you think you know about the devil. Everything the Bible says, everything humanity's ever made up about me, all of that... well, most of it, is a big lie. They just needed someone to put the blame of their mistakes on," Lucifer spoke this time, drawing Daniel's attention to him. His eyes were troubled and shiny, he really didn't want to hear all of that. "Daniel, I really am the devil,"

"No, you're not," he refused, shaking his head. "You're just this crazy dude with a parlor trick that gets people to confess. You can't possibly be the devil, there has to be another explanation for this,

"When I first found out, it... It turned my world upside down," Chloe started, softly rubbing Dan's back. "That's why I went to Europe with Trixie for a month, because I just couldn't deal with all of that,"

"No..." Dan mumbles, resisting to finding out the truth. 

"Lucifer, maybe you could... I don't know, show Dan the nice part?" Chloe suggested, clearly hinting at the devil's wings instead of his face. They wanted to traumatize Dan as little as possible.

"Oh, yeah, that could work," he stood up, checking to see if he had enough room to get his majestic, white wings out. "You know, that's a good idea. That's how Amenadiel and I told Charlotte, and she took it quite well,"

"What...?" But Daniel's question was too slow, so much that he fell completely speechless when Lucifer's majestic, white wings sprouted out of his back.

"I really wish we could be doing something different right now,” Lucifer mumbled all while Dan started at him with his mouth agape and his eyes as round as they could possibly get, amazed by the sight in front of him.

"He’s our friend and he saw you get out of a crime scene with six gunshot holes on your shirt and no wounds," Chloe answered him, and Dan was still speechless. “We gotta do something,”

"Daniel? Earth to detective douche?" He waved his hand in front of Daniel's face, briefly catching his attention before it went back to the wings. It was like a flicker of something. "Yes, of course, normal humans can't really think when seeing these," and with that he put his wings away, waiting eagerly for any kind of reaction on Daniel's side.

"Dan, are you okay?" Said Chloe with her soft voice.

"He... he has wings," he babbled out that last part of the sentence, having a debate with his own mind. Had he seen Lucifer with wings really or was his mind just playing tricks on him.

"Understatement of the millennia," he sat down once again, taking refuge in sarcasm, as always.

"He... You..." from the little experience Lucifer had with humans finding out that divinity existed, Dan seemed to be taking it pretty well. It was expectable for people to be shocked when seeing a handsome, British man, normally dressed in a three-piece suit sprout a pair of wings out of his back, or what was worse, flashing them his devil face. All in all, Dan seemed to be handling his shock quite well; Chloe was still the one that handled it worse, from the people he cared about, that is.

"So far he's taking it far better than you did. I think no one's ever taking the crown off your head for 'Worse reaction to finding out the devil actually exists', darling," he teased Chloe, earning a snort.

"Not really helpful, Lucifer," but then again, it was Lucifer. He used humor to get away from his issues, it was typical Lucifer behavior.

"Daniel, you just have to know that the man you know I am is exactly the same man I've always been," he sighed before he spoke, trying to understand what Dan was going through. Truth to be told, neither he or any of his siblings would ever understand what finding out a certain religion is real actually feels like.

"Exactly, he is Lucifer. Our Lucifer, the pain in the ass we've been working with for years, the grown-ass man who steals your pudding every once in a while," Chloe added, noticing how Daniel was slightly coming back, slowly but surely.

"Look, you know I never lie and that's why I'm telling you this. I'm an angel with a very, very, and I mean very dysfunctional family, a job that I love, a girlfriend that I love and I just... Everything that's been written about me throughout history, throughout time... that's not really true," Dan looks up at him and finally meets his eyes, looking pained but strangely enough not scared.

"How can I trust that, huh? How can I know that your whole "I don't lie" shtick isn't the biggest lie you've ever told?" And he snapped. It was understandable, truly, that he had all these questions he'd want answered, and he had every right to feel whatever he was feeling right then. Both Lucifer and Chloe hoped they could be enough for him.

"Daniel, I was punished," Lucifer said, unable to help himself from feeling a little bit hurt. "I went up against my father and just... You humans, Earth... You all are what I like to call "Dad's garage project"," he sighed, getting ready to peel layer after layer to prove Daniel Espinoza, out of all people, that he was an honest man. "I had a family once, and everything was lovely. And then my father started working on this garage project," he gesticulated around, meaning the entire universe. "And he grew distant. He would be away for millennia, no one would even hear from him," another sigh, another painful memory he brought up to the surface. "Another millennium went by and then mum wasn't the same anymore. She grew cold, she started getting away from us all, and up to a point all I had left we're my siblings. We were all we had,"

"Lucifer, you don't have to keep going. I'm sure there must be another way to earn Dan's trust back without bringing all your pain up," Chloe said, worried as she saw how Lucifer's eyes started growing heavier and shinier by the minute.

"But I want to. I'm not doing this only for him, I'm doing it for both of you... For me, even," his eyes were so full of emotion it was beautiful and painful to watch at the same time.

"Then go ahead," with both Daniel and Chloe's attention completely on him, he kept on going.

"We angels were created as an ideal, as something not as great as pure divinity like my mother and father are, but a rather more approachable kind," his voice was loaded with emotions as he took his trip down memory lane, laying bare before the douche and his detective. "We can do things no human would even imagine, I hung up all the stars, for dad's sake!"

"That doesn't sound so bad," Daniel said with his voice small, still wary of the celestial in question.

"Oh, Daniel, that's why humans never get it," Lucifer sighed, trying to build an analogy so they could understand what it was like. "How would you feel if everything you can do, all your potential —although not much—, were in a way... owned, by your parents?" Daniel stayed silent, looking intently at the devil. "How would you feel if every single thing you did was out of your father's will, not yours? How would you feel if you didn't even have a will at all?" He drew a shaky breath in. "All this potential, everything my siblings and I could do, was once upon a time completely under my father's will. We were wired, in a way, to do as he wished, to not even think about the possibility of having a mind of our own,"

"I'm sure that must have been awful," Chloe said softly, still sitting right by Daniel's side.

"The so-called "Rebellion", that war I and some of my siblings went to, was to obtain the only thing humans had that we angels didn't: free will. We just wanted the possibility to choose, to do right or wrong by ourselves," tears were threatening to break the barrier of his eyelids and stroke down his cheeks; he was reliving the nightmare, the pain of his fall. "And what did we get? Some of my brothers and sisters, the ones that rebelled with me, got what they wanted. Maybe not in the way they wanted it but in the end, it was free will. They fell, they became humans and in a speck of time, in a flicker, they were just gone. When they died their souls disappeared; Azrael, my sister, being the one tasked with smiting their souls out of existence," Daniel was looking at him on a different light, finally able to see why he was the way he was, all the suffering that had made him become the man he was now. "I, on the other hand, got the worst part of the punishment," he sighed deeply. "I didn't fall technically, but what happened to me was far worse. I was thrown into Hell and burned by hellfire, condemned to rule over the souls of the damned for all of eternity. All my siblings hated me, and soon enough, the humanity I so dearly love started hating me as well,"

"Lucifer, I..." Daniel tried, not having expected the conversation to go south so quickly. He was still handling the knowledge that God, angels, Hell, demons... basically all the Bible said was most likely true, that on top of dealing with Lucifer's trip down depression lane. It was a bit much, but a devil needed time to open up, to unburden himself.

"No, let me finish," he tried to compose himself, failing pretty much completely but still, at least he tried. "I'm going to throw another bomb at you: I don't take part in who goes to Hell,"

"What?" Daniel gasped, trying to process everything.

"That's right, Daniel. The whole "the devil made me do it" thing... couldn't be further from the truth," he breathed in deeply. "The truth is, you humans choose where you end up based on the guilt you feel at the moment of your death," at that, both Chloe and Daniel remained completely silent, as if they were giving him space to continue. "I was forced to believe I was a monster... All the things that happened in Hell? No human could ever fathom a fraction of the torture, of the pain that lives there. I did things I'm not proud of, but I had no choice, and when I came to Earth for good, I did so thinking I was a monster, but wanting to be my own man. All I ever wanted was to be judged by my own actions, by my own doing," he looked at Chloe and smiled bittersweetly at her, then he looked down at her belly and his smile grew sweeter rather than bitter. "And I finally have that. I won't give up on it,"

"Woah, I just..." Dan mumbled once everything was out in the light, all there for Chloe and him to see.

"It's a lot, I know," Chloe was quick to say, bringing her attention back to her ex-husband.

"Daniel, I'm not asking you to trust me," Lucifer started, trying to understand what he was going through. "I mean, you didn't even trust me when you didn't know all of this, how could you possibly trust me now?"

"Good point," Dan said with a touch of humor, trying to lighten up the mood but failing miserably.

"You just have to know I'd do anything to ensure Chloe and Beatrice are safe and happy, and that you have absolutely nothing to worry about on that front, which I guess is the one you care about the most," he gave Daniel a sympathetic smile but he didn't reciprocate it.

"Actually, I can prove that to you," Chloe spoke up, bringing his attention to her. "That time I got poisoned and he magically came up with the antidote? He killed himself, went back to Hell to talk to professor Carlisle and get the cure, and then Linda had to revive him,"

"You really did that?" Dan asked in disbelief, looking back at the devil, who just nodded in response. Truth to be told, it was teamwork. He didn't want to take all the credit for himself.

"I did, and I almost got stuck. If it hadn't been for my mother I would still be stuck on a hell loop," and at that, Daniel opened his eyes wide. It was as if a bucket of ice-cold water had fallen on him suddenly.

"Wait, you said Charlotte knew about this. Why did she know about this? How...?" Talking about her still hurt, but he had to know.

"Well... That's quite a story on itself, actually," he proceeded to briefly go over everything that had happened with Charlotte, then his mum, and then Charlotte back again, ending the story with how Amenadiel flew her up to Heaven in his arms, having finally found the redemption she so desperately wanted.

They wouldn't admit it if asked, but they actually cracked a laugh or two when talking about all the Goddess of all Creation did while she was in Charlotte's body, even touching the idea of Dan becoming Lucifer's stepdad. She was gone, but she would always be remembered dearly and, knowing all of this, Daniel now has an excuse to get his life together and walk his own path towards redemption, with the motivation of knowing that at the end of it, Charlotte would be expecting him with open arms.

"I think this is by far the easiest reveal I've ever done," Lucifer commented after a while. Dan wasn't still completely relaxed but he was open to hearing about what had happened and everything Lucifer had to tell. It was nice finally getting the truth out, he had to admit at least that. "Apart from the spawn's, that is,"

"So, Trixie really knows about all of this, huh?" Daniel asked then, not knowing how he felt about his daughter knowing her stepdad was the devil.

"Actually, she was the first one to find out and the one who took it the best," Chloe added, feeling more at ease.

"I don't know why that doesn't surprise me," Dan resigned himself, imagining his little girl immersed in all of that stuff.

"Maze went trick or treating with her with her demon face on, and ever since then Trixie has known about this," Chloe kept on telling him. "I mean, she's known for over a year and she took it far better than I did,"

"In your defence, my darling, you found out in far worse situation than either Daniel or the spawn have," Lucifer stuck up for her, smiling softly at his love.

"Of course, Maze is a demon, too. Does this stuff ever end?" Poor Daniel was being hit with truth after truth, and surprisingly enough he was taking it quite well. At least he wasn't freaking out.

"I stopped asking myself that question ages ago," Chloe sighed, oddly content that things had gone far better than she anticipated. She was fearing Dan would demand she took Trixie away from Lucifer, or something of the sort. She wouldn’t have known what to do if that had been the case.

"Fear not, Daniel. The spawn is, by far, the most resilient creature I've ever met. I showed her the face that makes people go insane and she just told me it was 'cool' and asked me to go trick or treating with her," Lucifer smiles fondly at the memory; the touch of her soft and small hand still present on his red, charred skin.

"That totally sounds like something Trixie would do," and that drew a smile out of Dan's face, a genuine one. His daughter definitely was something else. "I just... I don't know how I feel,"

"I totally get that," Chloe followed, trying to understand what he was feeling. While the both of them knew roughly the same, Chloe's finding out had been filled with fear and terror, and her fight or flight response was triggered. Dan couldn't have found out in a better setting, honestly, but that didn't mean it wasn't hard on him.

"I won't ask you to trust me because I know you won't... Well, at least not for a while. All I want you to know is that the spawn and Chloe are safe with me, and that just... I come in peace. I mean no harm to anyone that doesn't deserve it,"

"I appreciate that, thanks," Daniel said sincerely, actually believing Lucifer's words. It was a lot but at least he could sense the sincerity of his words, he could trust his gut. "I do have a lot of questions, though,"

"Then ask away. I'm happy to deliver the truth," and Lucifer wouldn't lie, he was liking that conversation. It felt like him and Daniel had finally given themselves the chance to go over everything on their lives and get to the root of the issues that didn't allow them to have a nice relationship between them. He was so glad they had been able to open up that forgot about Daniel's monumental fuck up of sending a heavily pregnant detective undercover on a case with baby-snatching thugs.

"How... What exactly are the..." he struggled to find a word that suited the context they were in. "Beings in there?" He pointed to Chloe's stomach, addressing one of the bigger elephants in the room.

"These are half-angel, half-human babies, much like Charlie," Chloe explained simply, putting her hands over her tummy. "We don't know if they will be exactly like him because our situation is different from Linda and Amenadiel's, but we'll figure it out when they get here,"

"So just like that? An angel can come to Earth and have half-angel babies with whomever they want?" Lucifer wouldn't lie, it was sort of nice getting to see all the reactions to their story. "How hasn't that happened before? I mean... We interviewed ninety-two sexual partners of yours once,"

"Actually, that bit right there is more complicated," he smiled smugly before continuing. "Chloe is a miracle," at that, Daniel's eyes grew larger. "Thrifty six years ago, Amenadiel came to Earth to bless a couple who couldn't have children, and from that blessing came Chloe,"

"I still don't know how I feel about all of that," Chloe murmured, rubbing her tummy as she felt how her little ones awakened, feeling movements here and there.

"My father literally put her here so she'd cross my path and, I don't know, lead me towards redemption," Lucifer sighed, trying to divert the conversation away from his dad. "She makes me vulnerable if she's near me,"

"That means that if I grab my gun and shoot you now, you'd be dead?" Daniel asked, genuinely amazed but also troubled.

"Pretty much, yes," he assumed.

"Well, that's good to know,"

"And of course you'd say that," Lucifer smiled small, enjoying the talk. "The working theory is that, just as she makes me mortal, she also makes me not sterile," 

They kept on talking a little bit longer after that, carefully explaining and going over every single doubt Daniel might have had about divinity on itself. They talked about the babies, Chloe, Charlotte, Lucifer's family, Hell, Heaven, just about everything a mere mortal could fathom about the celestial world. Lucifer was, needless to say, taken aback by the fact that Daniel took it all with calmness and stability, thing he was most definitely not expecting from him. Daniel didn't run, he didn't scream, he didn't feel all that frightened, but then again, he had only seen the nice side of things. He hadn't seen the monster Lucifer could be, he hadn't seen the beast he could turn into.

Neither of them could complain, though. As far as Chloe was concerned, the more people that knew about divinity within their close circle of friends, the better. They would need all the help they could get once the twins arrived, and knowing that she could count on Dan, too, meant a lot.

Maybe it hadn't been the best moment to find out that what humanity had been telling themselves about religion was true —for the most part, at least—, but all three of them were glad that the conversation had taken place and just... Daniel at least was glad he could have any doubt answered whenever he wished. Maybe, finding out that Lucifer really had been the devil was the last thing they needed to finally get in tune with each other and work on an amicable relationship, maybe even a friendship. 

That had been by far, the most positive reveal Lucifer had ever done, and he was really glad about that.


	24. Chapter XXIV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense, I said it could take anywhere from a couple of days to a week... well, it took a couple of days hahaha. 5,8k words later and here we are. I guess writing is just my coping mechanism, even if I’m not technically writing about myself.
> 
> This is a little roller coaster but I hope you like it just as much as I did. 
> 
> I wanted to address the issues going on lately, mainly in the US. It makes me angry to think that something as insignificant as the color of someone’s skin can determine if they get to live one more day or not. Not being racist isn’t enough, we have to be anti-racists, we have to help fight for the rights of those that need them. I, as a white, cis-heterosexual female have a privilege, and that is not right because everyone deserves to be able to count on the police as a force who protects them, not a force who goes against them. I understand that I will never understand how black people feel, but I can tell you that, to me, Black Lives Matter and that I stand by your side! I fight alongside you!
> 
> Stay safe, speak up and fight for what you deserve! You are beautiful, you are strong, and you deserve everything that’s good in this world!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Having Dan know all the truth had proven to be both an asset and a liability.

At first he had been reluctant to be anywhere near them, still getting used to the idea that Lucifer had gone through things no human could even think of, and he had done things so vile and awful... He just didn't know if he should trust him anymore. Then, a couple of days later and a couple of chats later, after learning the fact that angels self-actualize, he started to come around the idea a little bit more, involving himself with them almost as often as he used to before. Just knowing the fact that Lucifer still considered himself an angel and that he posed no threat to anyone, much less those he cared about, had been very helpful in making Dan comfortable and letting him live his life with the knowledge that there's, indeed, a higher power. In a way, he had to thank Lucifer. The devil had given the douche a reason, a purpose, to live a healthier and kinder life, he had given him a reason to go walk his path towards redemption. Knowing that Charlotte was at the other end of it made him feel a lot better.

However, a month passed and things were... Odd, for lack of a better word.

Since Chloe was now thirty four weeks pregnant, the birth of the twins could literally happen any day, and that scared Lucifer out of his mind. It made him feel anxious, terrified, and that sole fact made him more of a pain in the ass than he normally was. Even worse, things at Lux were oddly calm now that Maze had gone back to administering it, so Lucifer literally had nothing to do other than worry and wash all the twins' clothing over and over again in case they were dirty. He had learned babies had to be in clean environments and that had brought his inner OCD for tidiness out.

Then came the moment when Chloe couldn't physically deal with Lucifer's nervousness and lack of a better thing to do, so much that she talked to the lieutenant and got Lucifer another partner for the time being, practically begging Olivia to let him. Things couldn't have taken a worse turn when the new partner in question was Daniel Espinoza.

A month since the last field case she took and she found herself at thirty four weeks pregnant, working with her ex husband and boyfriend to bring murderers to justice, and even if it seemed like things couldn't go worse, she found herself actually fond of working with them. She would handle everything that had to do with the precinct, and Daniel and Lucifer would go on the field and arrest the bad guys. Neither of them would ever admit it but they worked really well together, and they were liking this new dynamic.

The only thing that was worrying Chloe and Lucifer a bit was the fact that Daniel had tons of questions still unanswered about the divine, and since Lucifer never lied, they would find themselves in a problem every once in a while when Daniel took the opportunity to ask while working.

Other than that, they could say their life couldn't be better. They were just waiting for the babies to make their arrival, they had found a way to work in the meanwhile that assured everyone had something to focus on other than the babies, and they were happy. What more could they ask for, right?

For example, their situation right then was as domestic as it could possibly get. Trixie had just arrived home after a school day and Chloe was cleaning up the dishes from a snack she ate, having Lucifer humming softly nearby. They had fallen in sync ever since moving to their new and far too large home, everything felt so perfect Chloe couldn't even believe that was her life.

"Are you busy tonight?" Lucifer came up behind her and whispered seductively to her ear.

"Are you kidding?" She asked him, laughing a little bit and turning off the faucet. "You know all I do after work is lay on the couch with my feet in salt water," she turned around and allowed his hands to grab her by her nonexistent waist; bump separating them."Well, then, I have a surprise for you," Chloe shivered, knowing that voice tone all too well.

"Does it involve leaving the house?" She was so done with being pregnant and not being able to do as many things as she used to.

"It does, but I promise it'll be worth it," he softly kissed her nose, making her laugh.

"What is it? You know I hate surprises," but she loved it when Lucifer brought out the domesticity within him.

"It's just a little date night for us," he softly pulled Chloe away from the kitchen island, moving side to side slowly as if they were dancing. "I thought, well, since the spawns are arriving soon, we might as well get to have one last date night before it all goes downhill,"

"Lucifer, things won't go downhill. They'll be better when these two get here," she placed her own hands on her bump, which had managed to get even larger with time. She couldn't understand how it was physically possible for two, almost five pound babies to fit in there.

"But we'll have less time for us and that's a reality," he tried to hide his pout but he was unable to, drawing an endeared smile out of Chloe. "I've been talking to Linda, and the first few months are hard,"

"Yes, they are, but we can always make up some time for us," she had gone through having a newborn before. Having time for the partner was hard but doable, they would do just fine. "Besides, we have Trixie for the weekend, we can't just leave her alone,"

"Don't worry on that front. I called Maze and Eve, they can watch the spawn while we go out,"

"Lucifer, we can't keep calling Maze and Eve to watch Trixie for us, they have lives," she argued.

"Muffin, Maze is thrilled to be here. She obviously misses the little urchin and Eve loves her as well. Besides," he went silent for a second before rising his voice. "Spawn! Are you okay if Maze and Eve come stay with you for the evening?" He said louder; his voice reaching Trixie who was in the living room watching cartoons.

"Of course!" She shouted back excitedly, turning around to look at them and pulling a face when she saw them hugging. The little girl was not fond of PDAs.

"See? We get the night for ourselves," Chloe still wasn't convinced, but Lucifer was the master of seduction, so she felt the pull towards accepting.

"Okay, but we get home before ten," she could be such a buzz killer.

"Okay, okay, I can manage," he smiled smugly, moving so he'd be by her side and with a hand on the small of her back he lead her to the staircase. "Up to our room we go so you can change into something decent,"

"Seriously?" And yes, Lucifer was completely serious.

Upon arriving to their room, the first thing that caught Chloe's eye was a gray, square box, right smack in the middle of their bed. It was far too large to be a new pair of shoes —it wouldn’t be the first time, Lucifer had showered her with shoes and clothing she still hadn’t gotten around wearing given her state—, and it woke up the curiosity within her.

"What is that?" She asked suspiciously, approaching the box with said curiosity.

"That is what you're going to wear tonight," and at that, Chloe's jaw fell.

"Lucifer, you can't be serious. Where are we even going?" She took the lid off the box and found a beautiful, red dress folded neatly amongst paper. It was truly beautiful but she doubted she'd fit into it. "How am I even going to fit into this?" She lifted it up, looking at how gorgeous it was. It was in a beautiful matte, deep red and it was long sleeved and off the shoulders, with a cut that seemed to be a fit and flare. Of course, upon inspection, Chloe found out it was backless.

"Less questioning and more action, come on," he rushed her, showing her to the bathroom.

"I'm a detective, how can you expect me to not question things?" Lucifer looked at her with smugness written all over his face.

"I think you look beautiful in everything, but you have an hour to get ready," he swiftly pressed a kiss to her lips and strode towards the exit. "Although my favourite look on you will always be naked,"

"Of course," she laughed, putting the dress back inside the box and watching as Lucifer left the room to get ready himself, she guessed. Most of the times they went out, he took far longer in the getting ready department than she did, that was saying something.

She sighed and got to work, taking a quickshower to start. She then did her hair —letting it fall over her shoulders in nice, slightly more pronounced waves—, and afterwards her make up, keeping it simple and natural. With how stunning the dress was on itself, it was enough.

With a sigh she pulled the dress out of the box, noticing how stretchy yet elegant the fabric felt to the touch, now understanding the saying "The devil's in the details". She carefully put the dress on, noticing how it didn't even have a zipper —thing she was really thankful for— and took a look at herself on the floor length mirror they had. She couldn't lie, she looked beautiful, even to herself. Even at nine months pregnant, the dress carefully and elegantly hugged all her curves, making her look elegant and sophisticated.

Lastly, she picked a pair of flats out of the closet —because there was no way in Hell she'd be wearing high heels at thirty four weeks pregnant— and left the room, looking for Lucifer. Instead, she run into Trixie.

"Wow, mom, you look beautiful," the little girl said with her mouth agape, looking at her mother with delight in her eyes.

"Thank you, monkey. Have you seen Lucifer?" And speaking of the devil, he came out of the guest room, dressed on one of the most elegant tuxedoes Chloe had ever seen.

"Speak of the—" and at the sight of his beloved, he was rendered speechless. "My my, don't you look gorgeous on that dress,"

"You don't look too bad yourself, and how did you even know this would fit, I mean," she gesticulated around her huge baby bump, amazed by how easily she could put the dress on.

"The devil's in the details, darling," he waltzed over to her and offered her his arm, which she took gladly. Trixie was looking at them with the epitome of glee painted on her face.

"Have a great date night, okay?" She told them, loving how beautiful they looked together before hurrying downstairs.

"Maze and Eve are here already. Shall we leave darling?" Chloe was hesitant in the sense that she had been completely rushed out of her house in a situation she didn't expect, but she agreed nonetheless because she trusted Lucifer with the entirety of her soul.

They took Lucifer's Corvette and headed off into the highway, leaving Trixie with Maze and Eve and letting her have her own fun night as well. Chloe had no idea where they were going, but the steadying hand on her thigh made her feel a lot better.

About half an hour after they left their home, Lucifer pulled up at a fancy looking Italian restaurant, right by one of the least populated beaches. She kind of recognized the place, she wasn't so sure, but she could recall some of the buildings on the other side of the street.

"Lucifer, this is a bit too over the top for a date night," Chloe said, unbuckling her seatbelt and looking at the place in awe. It wasn't too big, in fact, it was a rather small restaurant, but it looked to be so high end and expensive that it still managed to make her think it was too much.

"I just wanted to treat ourselves with this," he smiles softly, unbuckling his seatbelt before walking around the Corvette and opening the passenger's door like the gentleman he was. He grabbed Chloe's hand and swiftly helped her out of the car, planting a small kiss on her lips. "You know, wine you and dine you. Without the wine, of course, because you refuse to drink alcohol,"

"Lucifer, I'm pregnant. I can't drink, it can be harmful to the babies," she argued much like all the other times Lucifer had tried to get her to drink something.

"Claire and August are celestials, they can handle the booze," Chloe just gave him her usual eye roll and decided to leave the topic be. She wasn't going to be drinking alcohol anytime soon, and Lucifer had to learn how to deal with that.

"Yeah, whatever," she grabbed a hold of his right arm and started walking towards the beautiful restaurant. It looked to be much like the restaurant Augustus and Hazel from The Fault In Our Stars had their first date on; fairy lights, roses and branches everywhere. It was so beautiful, and right by the beach. Chloe could barely see a terrace on the other side of it that was literally on the sand, making it that bit more romantic.

"Lucifer, my friend!" The chef of the restaurant met them; a short, very Italian man dressed in chef attire with a very strong Italian accent.

"Giuseppe, I'm glad to see you once again," Lucifer greeted him with a handshake, smiling politely. " _Lei è la mia bella fidanzata_ ," he spoke with perfect Italian pronunciation, referring to Chloe who was awkwardly standing by his side.

" _Molto bella, davvero,_ " the chef said as he took a hold of Chloe's hand and placed a chaste kiss on the back of it. She smiled awkwardly, not understanding much of what was going on. " _Spero che tu abbia una serata meravigliosa,_ "

" _Grazie, Giuseppe,_ " he placed his hand on Chloe's lower back and guided her inside the restaurant, getting some stares from the people inside it.

"Is this a favor you cashed in?" Chloe asked him, ignoring the stares and following his lead. The place was just as beautiful in the inside as it was on the outside.

"Actually, it isn't. Just an old friend of mine getting me a reservation for his own restaurant," they walked towards a wide exit on the side and stepped on a small terrace. That small deck, right on top of the sand and with a direct view to the Pacific Ocean was a sight on itself.

Rose bushes lined the whole deck, making it contrast greatly with the beach behind it but making it look absolutely beautiful; rose branches climbing up the four poles on the four corners of the small terrace. Fairy lights were hanging from all four corners, giving super subtle and romantic lighting to a very beautiful place. Right in the middle of it was a table set for two, with two tall candles in the middle, plates, glasses and everything.

"And I'm assuming this bit right here wasn't part of that reservation, am I right?" Chloe asked, wowed by the beauty of the place.

"Let's say I just asked very nicely," he guided her to the table and pulled out the chair for her, making her blush as if it were the first time they went on a date. It wasn't, it was the fourth one.

"This is beautiful, Lucifer, I... I truly have no words," she said as she took the small terrace in, breathing in the salty air from the ocean.

"Then I'm glad. That was exactly the reaction I was looking for,"

They sat down and Giuseppe brought them the menu. Lucifer told Chloe to choose whatever she felt like eating and he did the same, briefly going over the delicacies written on the pages. To Chloe’s pregnant self, every thing she read sounded better than the last, she couldn’t truly decide. She ended up going for a mushroom risotto, while Lucifer stuck to the basics and went for spaghetti carbonara; him accompanying his dish with a fine bottle of wine while Chloe just asked for some water.

“How are you feeling?” Chloe asked him after a while, once Giuseppe placed their dishes in front of them and left towards the kitchen.

“About what?” Lucifer asked back, not completely sure about what she meant.

“I mean, our life,” Chloe said after taking a bite of her risotto. It truly was delicious, and as far as Lucifer was concerned, that restaurant held the finest Italian cuisine of all Los Angeles. “Can you believe this is our life?”

“I most certainly wasn’t expecting the turn it took after I came back,” he smiled softly at her, mentally going over everything that had happened to them over those last few months. It was crazy to think they had gone through such things. “But I don’t regret anything,”

“I don’t either, but I mean, if a year ago you had told me we would be about to have half angel twins in what? Maybe less than a month? I wouldn’t have believed you,” their life was so crazy, and yet it was theirs. They couldn’t have asked for a better life, honestly.

“You would have laughed in my face. For dad’s sake, even I would’ve laughed in your face,” everything was so not what they were expecting and yet everything they wanted right then. “I’m nervous,” the devil confessed, grabbing his love’s hand over the table and softly caressing her knuckles with his thumb.

“I know you are,” Chloe told him, understanding of his situation. She felt exactly like that when she was about to have Trixie.

“I never thought...” he hesitated. “I never thought I’d get to have this. I never thought I’d ever have children of my own and much less that I’d like the idea,” Lucifer could be so beautiful when he opened himself up and showed his emotions. Most of the times it managed to get Chloe teary eyed, knowing that so much emotion could fit within him.

“For what it’s worth, I never thought you’d be up to a life like this either. That’s why I took so long to tell you I was pregnant in the first place,” she smiled, remembering the cocktail of feelings she felt from the moment she first found out to when she finally got to talk about it with him. Those had bee a rough couple of months. “I was afraid you’d reject me,”

“I would never do that,” Lucifer was quick to say, tightening his hold on Chloe’s hand. “No matter what, I’m always going to be there by your side. You’re stuck with me now,”

“I know that now, but back then... I was so afraid you’d leave again, that you’d forget about the life we had built,” Chloe smiled bitter sweetly, glad she didn’t feel like that anymore but mad at herself for having felt like that in the past. “I’m glad things turned out to be the way they are,”

“If only I could feel less nervous about the whole fatherhood thing... That would be lovely,” he said with a hint of sarcasm filtering through his voice, right before taking a sip of his wine.

“Lucifer, it’s normal to feel nervous when you’re about to have a child,” Chloe tried to soothe him, drawing circles with her right thumb on his hand while her left hand went to rest on her prominent stomach. “I’m nervous, I mean... I truly don’t know what to expect,”

“Yes, but you seem to be handling it far better than I am,”

“That’s because I’ve always known I wanted to be a mom,” she smiled softly, trying to get him to not feel bitter about his feelings. “You lived your whole life, which is more time than I can even conceive, thinking you’d never be a father and hating children. Going from that to actually liking the idea of the twins and Trixie in just a few months can be scary, it’s normal,”

“I’m still... What makes me the most nervous is not being able to...” he was struggling with his words, not knowing how to say it. “How can I know if I’ll be a good father?”

“You already are,” she was quick to say, not missing how the devil choked out the tiniest of smiles. “And I know that not only because of how you are with the twins, I can tell by how you are with Trixie,”

“Chloe, we’ve been through this, she’s not my daughter,” he tried, but Chloe quickly refuted his words.

“Yeah, she isn’t, but you’re there for her just as much as I am,” and it was true. Ever since they moved in together, Lucifer had taken on the role of bedtime stories, of sometimes helping the little girl do her homework or just... he was teaching her how to swim. He was a father figure to her, even if he wasn’t her father and she still had Daniel. “Ever since we moved in together you’ve been living with her just as much as I do and you’ve been doing things for her just as much as I do, if not more,”

“It seems awfully easy,” Lucifer confessed, not even sparing a second thought to how easily he had fallen into Chloe and Trixie’s routine, how he had molded himself to be what his girls needed.

“It’s a little bit more difficult with newborns, even more so if there’s two, but once we get into a routine you’ll do just fine,” Chloe loved him and trusted him so much. She wished he would trust himself just as much as she trusted him. “To be a good parent you just have to be there for your kids and have them know they can count on you for anything. You already do that, with both the twins and Trixie,” she smiled at him, trying to reassure him. “You’ll do wonderful, sweetheart,”

“You know... I’m not usually one to thank my father for anything, if you couldn’t tell,” he sighed, looking at Chloe like she had been the one to hang the moon. “But I thank him for you, Chloe. I really do,” 

They spent the rest of their evening talking about their expectations, about what they wanted to do, the things they still had to think of when it came to the twins. They talked a bit about Lucifer’s past, Chloe being the one to bring up the things he had said back when Daniel found out the truth, and she just tried to understand how everything had gone down, why Lucifer was the way he was and why he felt the things he felt, specially towards fatherhood.It helped her a lot knowing how things were back when Lucifer was growing up, many, many, many millennia ago.

Once they finished their shared dessert and as usual, Lucifer asked for the check and paid for it himself, denying Chloe of the chance of trying to pay for something at least once. That was one thing that could be both a perk and a disadvantage of being in love with the devil: he was so attentive he sometimes didn’t allow you to be attentive back.

“What if...” and idea had gone through Lucifer’s mind, and he wasn’t one to just shake it off and move on. “Would you want to take a stroll down the beach, my darling?” He suggested, standing up from the table and going over to where Chloe was sitting.

“Dressed like this? Seriously?” She thought he had been joking at first, but after seeing the seriousness in his face she understood it was a serious suggestion. “I don’t know, babe. I really am too pregnant for that,” she tried.

“If you get tired I’ll carry you back to the car,” he suggested, and the smile on Chloe’s face told him she knew he would be one to do that.

“You know? It gets far less romantic when I know you have supernatural strength and carrying me back to the car won’t be actually difficult to you,” she got her feet out of her flats before standing up, silently agreeing to the devil’s initial suggestion and grabbing him by the arm. “Actually, to what extent do I make you vulnerable?”

“I wish I knew,” he swiftly got rid of his red bottoms and socks before walking forward with his girlfriend by his side, walking down the couple of steps that separated them from the beach. “I know that I can die from mortal wounds when around you, and that’s about it. I seem to be able to do everything else an angel does, except for being immortal,”

As their feet touched the cool sand and they walked closer to the shore, their conversation deepened. They talked about what his vulnerability actually meant, or what they thought it might mean because no one other than God actually knew, they talked about how Chloe felt and how, in a way, their vulnerability was mutual. Chloe had opened up to him like she had done to nobody else. In a matter of months he became her confident, her partner, easily the person she could trust the most, even if to her everything he was back then was a deranged person with a god complex. He had done things to her no other human had ever been able to, he had touched her soul on so many levels, he had helped her bloom into the woman she was now. She had come so far from that detective everyone hated because of Palmetto, and all of that personal growth had been, in a huge part, thanks to him.

Then they stayed silent, walking right by the shore and letting the water wash over their naked feet and the hems of their clothing, just feeling the breeze run through them. Those were the moments they liked the most, the ones where they could just be with one another without the need of doing something, without the need of even saying something. They were completely in sync, just letting their bodies carry them through the beach with the knowledge that the other was there, trusting they’d never be alone.

Then came a moment when Lucifer stopped walking, and therefore, made Chloe stop walking as well. They weren’t too far away from the restaurant, maybe a couple of blocks, and the part they were in now was far darker and quieter. 

“What is it?” Chloe asked when she felt the tug in her hand, telling her Lucifer had stopped walking. He looked at her like all the stars in the sky had been lit up by her grace, not his.

“That place, right over there,” he pointed as somewhere further away from the shore, reminiscing. “That’s where Maze and I first landed when I abdicated,” he sighed, remembering the person he was back then, the monster he thought he was. 

“Is that why you brought us here?” Chloe asked softly, looking up at his round and dark eyes, searching for an answer.

“This is also the place where we had our first kiss,” and at that, Chloe’s breath hitched. She remembered all too well how Lucifer had listed a ton of things someone worthy of her would know and do, not knowing that he was already doing all of them without even trying. That thought brought a wider smile to her face. They had grown so much ever since that. “I still don’t know why you did that, even after everything I told you,”

“You told me all these things someone worthy of me would know or do... And you were already doing all of them, and even more,” she brought her hand to his cheek and carefully planted a soft peck on his lips, as if she were trying to recreate that moment. “That’s why I chose to kiss you. You couldn’t see it, but I could,”

“We’ve come a long way since then, haven’t we?” Chloe smiled and nodded, pressing her forehead against his and just letting her body feel the moment. 

“As these two are our witnesses,” she brought one of Lucifer’s hands to her belly, where no kicks could be felt. Ever since she had stepped into the third trimester, the babies had stopped moving around so much. They would kick her in the ribs sometimes, or press their head on her bladder, but not many movement or kicks to the outside.

“I was so angry when I found out you had been put in my path,” Lucifer confessed, moving the hand on her belly over to her waist, grabbing her with all the love and care in the world. “I had to leave, I had to let you have your choice,” Chloe chose to stay silent at that, knowing how Lucifer needed to get it all out. It wasn’t her place to say anything. “It took me a while but then I understood; I couldn’t live without you, and if to have you back in my life I had to do what I did with Candy, well... then so be it. I’ve always been known to be selfish, haven’t I?”

“I was so hurt back then,” Chloe sighed, remembering how she felt. “If I had only known everything you were going through,”

“I spent all the following months restraining my feelings, keeping them to myself because I thought that if I got you to feel anything towards me, then it wouldn’t be real and it would be against your free will,” his voice was so soft, so emotional. He was pouring his heart out to her in the most beautiful of ways, and Chloe just loved him when he got like that.

“Then, Pierce and I got together,” Chloe followed his train of though, threading their story through words and emotions.

“And I felt angry that someone else could have you,” he pulled away to look at the specific spot where he had landed and later, kissed his beloved detective for the very first time. “But then... Then you called off the wedding,”

“I did,” Chloe could feel the emotions bubbling up within her, and she didn’t know if they were out of pregnancy hormones or what, but she felt glad they were there. “I told Ella that you had been the reason why I said yes to Pierce, and also the reason why I called the whole thing off,” Lucifer smiled at her; eyes and face dripping with emotion as he pulled away from her and did something she really wasn’t expecting.

He brought his left hand to the pocket of his tuxedo and got down on one knee.

“Well, then. I hope you don’t call this one off, too,” he didn’t care that he had sand all over him, he didn’t care that the proposal hadn’t gone exactly the way he had planned it to. All he cared about was her and his children, and every proposal would be right as long as it had them both together and happy.

“Oh, Lucifer—” she was truly speechless as she saw him pull a small, red, velvet box out of his pocket and present it to her, still closed.

“When you called that wedding off, I realized one thing: you didn’t need me,” Chloe could only bring her hands to her mouth and stare at him in awe, unable to believe that was happening to her. He was proposing to her. “You had caught two bad guys and all without my help, all with me being my annoying self and trying to revive our greatest hits because I thought that was what we needed,” Chloe was completely awestruck, rendered completely speechless. “Then, with the realization that you didn’t need me came another one: if you didn’t need me, then you put up with me because you wanted to, because you’d chosen me,” Chloe nodded at that, remembering vividly the conversation they had on that balcony, remembering how she felt throughout all of that.

He opened up the red box, showing off a ring worth so much you could probably buy a house in Beverly Hills with all that money. It had a big and round, almost transparent diamond in the middle and it was surrounded by smaller ones, growing tinier and tinier until they faded into a platinum band.

“So now I ask you, Chloe Jane Decker,” Chloe was already nodding and Lucifer hadn’t even asked the question yet. “Since you’ve chosen me, do you choose to put up with me for the rest of our lives?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed without doubt, looking at him and realizing that this was it.

“Will you marry me?”

“Yes!”

The smile on Lucifer’s face as he pulled the ring out of the box and slid it on Chloe’s left ring finger was one Chloe would remember for the rest of her life. He had the entirety of her heart on his hands, and she had the entirety of his on hers, and they could trust each other completely not to break it or play with it. It was love in the purest of forms, in the form of a fallen angel that had risen because one certain human put all her love on him, it was love in the form of a broken woman who found her guardian angel who helped her build herself back up and, in the process, learn that trusting again could be the best thing that could ever happen to her.

It was him, and it was her. It had always been like that.

Lucifer stood up and was immediately met by the lips of the one he loved the most clashing into his, showing with a kiss everything that she couldn’t put into words.

“I love you,” he mumbled with his forehead against hers, looking into her eyes from so close that the different shades of blue blurred together into one.

“I love yo—”

And it would have been perfect, it would have been far better than Lucifer anticipated...

If only Chloe hadn’t passed out before telling him she loved him, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think of this? Little cliffhanger there in the end, so what do you think will happen? I’m reading you all, whether you want to talk about the fanfic or if you just want to vent, I hear you!
> 
> Lots of love!


	25. Chapter XXV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! Here’s me, delivering chapter 25!
> 
> Thank you all so much for your birthday wishes! I had the greatest time and finally got to reconnect with my brother and meet my brother-in-law, thing I had wanted to do for so long! The best gift, though, was reading your comments and going over 19k hits (and by the way, I turned 19 so it’s even better hahaha), which is just so crazy to think of! Thank you so much, you mean the world to me!
> 
> Sorry for the little cliffhanger at the end of last chapter, and I’m telling you, this gets a little emotional. I cried at the end of it, just so you know, and I rarely do that. 
> 
> Thank you so much for being here and I hope this touches you as much as it touched me!
> 
> Stay safe, keep standing up for yourselves and those you love, and take care!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

_"Daddy!"_

_"Come on up monkey!"_

_"Will you dance this song with me when I get older?"_

_"Always, my little one,"_

* * *

It was far too bright, for anyone's liking.

She came back to her senses very slowly, as if the slumber she had suddenly fallen into wouldn't want to let go of her, as if she didn’t really want to wake up at all. She felt so nice being back there, being with him again.

First, she felt the weight of and all too known hand grabbing tightly onto her left one, and as her senses became her own again, she even felt tiny kisses on the back of it, too, making the gesture a bit more intimate. She could feel all the creases and lack of calluses, she knew the shape and weight of his hands by heart.

She then was able to hear. Slowly, and the same way a wave breaks before it reaches the shore, she began hearing noises, primarily rustling and movement, accompanied by the constant beeping of something. _Where was she?_ The noise was constant; loud and sharp beeps helping her bring herself back to consciousness. Another sound joined the beeping, too; two very distinguishable and loud thuds, one going slightly faster than the other.

Fighting the pull that urged her to stay asleep, the pull that wanted her to go back to the beautiful reality her subconscious had created, she started opening her eyes. It was all very slowly; the lights blinding her through every step of the way, so bright it was almost imposible to grow used to them.

“Chloe?” There it was, his beautiful and deep voice, all filled with worry and preoccupation. “Muffin, for dad’s sake, you scared me,” he said as he leaned over her and brought her head close to his chest, hugging her with all the love in the world.

“What’s going on?” She asked, awakening once and for all. “Where am I?” She felt weird. It was as if she had just woken up, aware and all, maybe a little bit drowsy and slow, but she didn’t feel bad or ill.

By the looks of it, she was clearly in a hospital. She was laying on a stretcher with a couple of monitors hooked to her body; the room being separated from the rest of the ER by two blue curtains. She guessed she was in triage for admission, probably, although she didn’t know why.

“You’re at the hospital, Miss Decker,” a nurse right beside her said, checking her vitals all while the rapid thuds Chloe could now recognize as the heartbeat of her children filled the small room. “My name is Emily and, from what your _fiancé_ told us, you fainted,”

“How long have I been out?” The tight feel of three bands around her stomach made her feel uneasy, allowing her mind to drift back to ten years ago when she had been in labor with Trixie. They were monitors, that she was sure of; two of them monitoring their babies heartbeats and the other one keeping track of any possible contractions. “Wha... Am I in labor? I can’t be, it’s too early!”

“No, you’re not, calm down, Miss Decker,” the nurse said and placed her hand on Chloe’s arm, giving her a supporting squeeze. “From what Mr. Morningstar told us, you’ve been out for around three minutes,”

“You passed out on me,” Lucifer said with pain in his voice. He had never been more worried before, only when their lives were in danger, and that usually included bullets. He had feared for all three of them: Chloe _and_ his children.

“And you brought me here in three min... Never mind,” she was quick to realize Lucifer had flown her to the hospital. If he had taken the Corvette they would still be at the highway. “What’s wrong? Why did I pass out?” Chloe asked the nurse, worried that something might be wrong. She felt fine, just a bit of a headache bothering her. 

“Your blood pressure was really high, 220 over 190. We’re administering Nifepidine which also helps stop labor if it were to begin,” the nurse explained carefully. “Do you have a history of high blood pressure during pregnancy?” It was only then that Chloe noticed her beautiful, red dress had been replaced by a blue, dotted hospital gown.

“I...” she sighed. Given the fact that at least one of the babies was a celestial being, she shouldn’t have had any issues. She couldn’t help it but wonder, what had gone wrong? “Yes, my daughter, I... I was diagnosed with preeclampsia with her, but it was over ten years ago,”

“Time doesn’t matter. It’s normal that blood pressure issues arise during pregnancy,” Emily smiled softly at Chloe, eyeing her blood pressure that was slowly but surely going down. “We’ll monitor you in case you have any contractions and we’ll admit you to do some testing. It’s highly probable that you have preeclampsia again, if you’ve had it before,”

“Are she and the babies going to be fine?” Lucifer asked innocently, holding on tighter to Chloe’s left hand.

“We’ll do everything we can,” she smiled sympathetically at them, knowing that most cases of preeclampsia always ended up in premature delivery. Thankfully, the twins were already at thirty-four weeks of gestation, they would do well if they were to be born that early. “I’ll come check on you in a while and we’ll admit you,” and with a nod, the nurse left, leaving the newly engaged couple alone. They weren’t really alone since they could hear everything going on around the ER, but the three blue curtains surrounding them made them feel like they were in a more private setting.

“I’m so sorry,” Chloe apologized, returning the squeeze to Lucifer’s hand.

“It’s okay, muffin. I’m just glad everything’s alright with you three,” Lucifer stood up and put his forehead against Chloe’s, finally releasing a sigh of relief now that he knew his fiancé was getting better and their babies were out of harm’s way. Sort of.

“I ruined your proposal, Lucifer,” she continued, bringing both of her hands to the top of her belly and playing with her new ring. She loved the weight of it on her finger.

“It doesn’t matter, you are all that matters,” he knew she wasn’t on the clear, but he was glad she was at least awake and responding. Those had been the most agonizing three minutes of his entire life.

“I can’t help but feel bad about it,” she pouted slightly, drawing a smile out of the devil before he sat back down on the armchair beside the bed. “It was so beautiful and emotional, and all I could do was pass out,”

“Well, at least you said yes before you did,” Chloe smiled small, taking a look at the heavy ring on her finger. It was so beautiful and delicate; she would even dare say it looked to be handmade.

“We’re getting married,” she sighed, not believing her life, not believing her luck. Never in a million years would she have thought she would be marrying one of LA’s biggest playboys and be actually happy and looking forward to it, much less the fact that she would be having twins with him easily any day now. It was crazy to think that just three years ago she would have been straight up repulsed by the sole thought, and now it managed to bring the brightest smile to her face, despite the circumstances.

“We are...” Lucifer seconded, grabbing her left hand into his and inspecting it, loving how the ring looked on her pale finger. “I can’t believe you said yes,”

“Really?” She couldn’t believe he would doubt that. “Why would you say that, you know I love you,”

“I know, and I also know you were thinking about it, but just... You really said yes. We _are_ getting married,” he was just as moved by the whole thing as she was.

“How did you know I was thinking about it?” She wondered. Maybe one of his powers had been mind reading and she just hadn’t known. Truth is, yes, she had been thinking about tying the knot with him, coming close to considering proposing herself.

“Back when we were undercover you kept staring at Sophia’s rings,” he said it with a small smile, remembering how the idea first came to his head. It took him a month getting it to work, and he was so glad she had said yes. “You had this look on your face... Like you wanted to have that, but you were also afraid. As if you weren’t entirely sure you wanted it,”

“What made you think that?” She pushed it, letting the devil play with the ring he had put on her finger.

“I don’t know... Maybe the fact that we haven’t been together for that long, really,” he was hesitant, and it was truly adorable.

“Lucifer, we’re having children together. Even if we never get married, we’re bonded for life,”

“Well, that’s a good point,” he smiled to himself, alien to the feeling of being relieved and scared at the same time. “Still, a small part of me was afraid you’d say no,”

“I would never,” she looked at him and through her eyes he was able to see that she meant every single word that came out of her mouth. “I’m too in love with you,”

“And I, you, Chloe,”

They remained silent for a while, comfortably soothed by the steady rhythms of their children’s heartbeats that were filling up the room. The other machines would beep every once in a while, but they would just ignore it and settle in the calmness and tranquility of what hearing their babies’ heartbeats meant.

To Chloe’s mind came an image, a memory. She couldn’t quite say why, but it felt more like a dream, so much that she would have though she dreamt it if it weren’t for the fact that it was one of her most treasured memories in her mind. It had been engraved on her mind, on her heart; something so beautiful and special she had always been afraid of sharing it to those she cared about. Now that she thought about it, she was positive she had dreamed of it while she was unconscious.

She was little, about seven or eight years old, and she had been sitting on the floor and doing her homework on the coffee table while her mother rehearsed her lines and the radio was playing softly on the back. It was a usual week day where she would have to do her homework before doing anything else, and she had always been a rule abiding person, even as a child.

Through the front door came the person that had marked Chloe the most, the one man that had been everything for her once upon a time, the one man that had been the center of her world. Her dad.

Both Penelope and John would always encourage little Chloe to take care of her responsibilities first, then to have fun, but that day had been so different and special that it managed to stay in Chloe’s mind for almost thirty years. That day, John Decker had come home while Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley had been playing on the radio, so he quickly brought little Chloe up to her feet and danced with her until it ended. However, after that song, came a much more beautiful and meaningful one, and they slow danced to it as well.

The room had been filled with laughter as little Chloe got comfortable in her father’s arms while they danced, and once the song was over she just hugged him and shared one of the most meaningful conversations of her life.

While she was out, in those short three minutes she lost her consciousness, that memory was relived inside her mind. It was like a dream, and the only reason she knew it wasn’t a fragment of her imagination was the fact that the memory in question had always been a constant in her life, one of the moments she felt the closest to her dad.

It would normally bring a smile to her face, remembering those times when life was less complicated and she still had her dad around. But in that particular moment, watching the big diamond on her engagement ring shine under the lights of the hospital, the memory brought a rather pained expression to her face; the emotions showing through her eyes without her even noticing.

“What’s wrong?” Lucifer was quick to realize something was troubling his fiancé; her beautiful blue eyes being clouded by a pain of a sort Lucifer would never understand.

“Huh?” She had been lost in her mind, lost in the memory of a time where things were easy and she was one hundred per cent happy.

“Something’s wrong, you look sad,” he said, bringing the hand he was holding to rest on Chloe’s stomach, concerned about the feelings going through Chloe’s mind and heart. “What is it?”

“I...” and she felt hesitant to share it. The memory was so precious she felt afraid that it would lose its spark. “Just... I had a dream, that’s all,”

“What about?” Lucifer pushed it, wanting to know what made his soon-to-be bride feel so down.

“I’m not sure I want to talk about it,” it was her dad, the man that had been her rock for over nineteen years. She wasn’t so sure she wanted to share her precious memory, even if it was to Lucifer.

“Was it like a nightmare?” And well, what could he say? The devil was curious, it was part of his nature.

“No, actually. It was a really nice dream,” and she teared up because she knew it wasn’t just a dream, it had been her most treasured memory, one of those things that made her feel warm inside, that reminded her of her dad in the best of ways. “About my dad,” she confessed then, giving him another piece of her heart.

“I will never get used to the fact that you actually cared about your father,” he smiled sympathetically to the love of his life, lovingly squeezing her hand. “It must have been lovely having a man like John as your father growing up, even though I never met him,”

“He was the best,” she sighed, finally beginning to understand why she felt sad about one of the memories she loved the most. It wasn’t just that she missed him, she could realize now. “We were a package deal when I was little, he was always there for me,”

“And I’m sure he’s looking down at you from the Silver City and smiling with pride, as my brother told you,” it was reassuring the fact that she knew her dad was in Heaven, it was what he deserved. “I wish my father could learn a thing or two about yours, but well... let’s say he’s not all too involved with the souls that arrive in Heaven, either. You could say it’s like a pattern,”

“It’s just... we’re getting married,” she focused her eyes on the ring her left hand held with pride; the beautiful diamond shining with all the bright light around. “And... I guess it just hit me the fact that he isn’t going to be there,”

“Didn’t that happen when you and Daniel got married as well?” Lucifer asked, sounding a little bit tactless but in his defense, he couldn’t understand how Chloe could have had such a beautiful relationship with her father. All he knew about fatherhood was awful, and in spite of wanting to change his concept of it for the sake of his children, all he had lived was still there. It was like a wound that hurt deep into his soul, something that had hurt terribly but it had made him the man he was now.

“When Dan and I got married I... I didn’t really know what I was doing,” she confessed. She would never regret Trixie, she was the greatest gift that life had given her, but if she could change the situation and how things were when she arrived, she would do it in a heartbeat. “Dan and I got married when I found out I was pregnant with Trixie,” she didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of telling him all of that before. “And I guess we did it because it was what we thought would be best for her. We had been dating for only a couple of months, and we didn’t really know what to do,”

“You have a type, it seems,” and the joke, although not really called for, made a smile creep up Chloe’s face. It was such a Lucifer-like comment to do. “With clear, distinguishable differences, of course,”

“We went to the court house during work hours, got married, and went back to work. I didn’t really have the time to process everything that had happened, to even realize my dad hadn’t been there,” and she didn’t really know John was in Heaven, she didn’t even believe in religion. “That night, when I went to bed, I cried my eyes out thinking about everything he would’ve told me and just... I was hurting because he hadn’t been there,”

“My darling...” Lucifer tried to comfort her, noticing how the topic seemed to really hurt her, even more than she let on, and she was letting on plenty.

“And I just...” she sighed, trying to swallow around the knot that had formed on her throat, trying to somehow overcome the urge to break down. “I know you like the back of my hand, I know you’ll want this huge, Greek wedding and... And my dad’s really not gonna be there to see it,”

“I know you still have a hard time wrapping your head around the concept of divinity, but let me tell you, Heaven has far more resources than Hell does. Your dad is looking down at you from up there, he’s seen it all, and although you feel like he hasn’t, he’s been here with you,” she smiled softly, trying to keep her eyes from becoming glossy with tears.

“You don’t get it, Lucifer,” she started. Talking around that knot was becoming far more difficult than she anticipated. “He can be looking down from up there, and it’s really beautiful to think... to _know_ that he’s been doing that, but he’s not here,” she sighed, fighting the urge to cry like the strong woman she was. She hated being seen as someone vulnerable, even to those she trusted the most, so he grabbed onto Lucifer’s hand tightly, like a lifeline, and tried hard not to break down. “I... He won’t get to go dress shopping with me, he... He won’t get to sit you down and talk to you about all the things you wouldn’t be allowed to do as my husband because he’d hunt you down and kill you if you did, he... He won’t be able to walk me down the aisle,” and as her eyes drifted down to the ring on her left hand, she realized something big as well. “ _I_ won’t get to do all those things with him, and it hurts,”

“I...” Lucifer was left speechless because she was right. John would be able to watch all of her life from up above, but she wouldn’t be able to have one of the most important people in her life during one of the most important days of her life. She had every right in the world to feel sad about it.

“Do you want to know what I dreamt of?” Lucifer chose to stay silent, giving Chloe the space to vent her feelings out, to cry even, if she ever allowed herself to do so. “It was a dream about a memory, something that really happened when I was little, and it’s the memory I treasure the most,” 

“Chloe, you don’t have to,” he wanted to stay silent but she needed to know that it wasn’t necessary, that if it would do more harm than good, then she had all the right in the world to keep it to herself.

“I know I don’t, but you’re my fiancé, and I need you to understand how I’m feeling,” she sighed, getting ready to share her most treasured memory with the love of her life. “It was a normal day. I was about seven or eight years old, I don’t remember, and I was doing my homework on the coffee table. My...” she sighed, trying to control her emotions and remain stable. “My mom was rehearsing her lines with the radio on, and that’s when my dad arrived. He... he saw me, helped me stand up and out of the blue we started dancing to Jailhouse Rock,” she choked out a smile, remembering the picture of them dancing to that song in the early nineties. 

“Chloe...” Lucifer could see she was about to break, and he knew she wasn’t one to do so. He wanted to hug her and let her cry out all her sorrows, but at the same time he wanted to give her the chance to remain quiet and keep it to herself as she was used to doing. He was torn, to say the least.

“Then, a ballad came up on the radio and he picked me up. We... we started slow dancing to it, and... I swear I’ve never felt safer in my entire life than I did when I was in his arms that day,” she gave out a shaky sigh, noticing how the knot down her throat kept growing bigger and bigger. “The song was about a father telling his daughter’s husband how he loved her first, how he had been her rock before him and... basically telling him to take care of her. It was a daddy-daughter dance song,”

Lucifer could now understand why she had been so touched, why she didn’t want to share her memory on the first place. It was hers, she had treasured it for almost thirty years and, while in other moments of her life she would have remembered it and smiled, now that she was getting married it brought out all sorts of pain and yearning.

“I... I asked him if he would dance that song with me when I got married, and he said yes. And then we talked about how fitting it would be because he’d be super jealous of the man I would choose to marry, and how protective he would always be of me. I... I was his little girl, his little miracle,” and then she broke down crying, aware of how much she missed him, aware of how much she needed him to be there in such an important moment. The knowledge that he wouldn’t hurt deeply into her soul, and she was no longer able to keep the tears to herself. She needed to get it all out.

“Muffin...” Lucifer whispered, hating the feeling of seeing someone he loved so much hurt, and realizing he was unable to make them feel better. All he could do right then was hug her from the side, letting his head fall on the hospital bed’s pillow and contain her, make her feel loved.

“Ever since he was killed I... I’ve never been able to hear that song without crying my eyes out,” she confessed, leaning into Lucifer’s touch without a care in the world for the monitors that were hugging her stomach, and just letting it all out, sharing her pain with him. “I won’t get to be walked down the aisle by him, I... We’ll never get to dance ‘I loved her first’ because someone took him from me,” she was broken, she was grief-struck, and it hurt so deeply she couldn’t breathe. She could physically feel the weight of it on her chest, it had been a while since the last time, and she just wanted to move forward, to live her life and be as happy as possible. “He loved me first,”

“It’s okay, Chloe, let it all out,” he told her, rubbing her arm up and down slowly and trying to make her feel better, or well, as comfortable and contained as she could.

He had finally understood the human feeling of loss when he had to kill Uriel, when he had to send his mother into another universe with the knowledge that he would never see her again; a feeling of deep, painful sorrow that would never leave.

Grief. It was always there, like a ball inside of a box, one’s life, which also has a pain button. This pain button always delivers the same amount of pain, a sorrow so great that it manages to render you speechless, to drown you in your own tears, and ever since you experience said loss, it’s there.

Life is always moving, and the possibilities of the pain of the loss being triggered are entirely based on the size of the ball. You live your life, the ball inside of it moves, and you always have a chance of being triggered, of going through your day as you normally would and then, suddenly, be hit with all the pain and sorrow grief entails.

In the beginning, when the loss is fresh, the grief is so large and great that it takes over all the room inside the box, therefore putting constant pressure on the grief button. That was how she felt when her father first died, that was how he felt when he had to kill his own brother and send his mother away.

Then, over time, the ball grows a little bit smaller, leaving room for it to bounce against the walls, and with that you go through life. You are triggered a lot, but it isn’t constant, you can find moments of peace.

As time moves forward, the ball tends to get smaller, and therefore, the probability of it hitting the pain button decreases. It doesn’t mean grief isn’t there, it doesn’t mean it leaves because it never does, it’s always there, but living life becomes easier, and one becomes less triggered.

Now, even if he could understand how that pain felt, he’d never understand what she was feeling now. Their balls were different because Uriel and John Decker meant different things to them. Their pain buttons were different because they experienced pain and coped with loss in different ways. He could feel the pain of Uriel’s loss, mostly because it had been on him, and he had been dealing with it as best as he could, being at its worst in the very beginning and then, slowly getting better. He could feel the grief of losing what he had been able to build with his mother, but he moved on.

He’d never understand what losing someone as important as John was to Chloe would ever feel, and he hated the fact that all he could do was hug her and give her the space to let all her feelings out if she needed to. He hated the fact that he would never be able to walk a mile in her shoes when it came to grief, because he would never understand what losing a caring parent would feel like. Even losing his mother, although it had been hard, could never be compared to what Chloe was feeling from having lost John.

Chloe’s ball had hit the button.

Her life moved towards marriage and the grief button was triggered, the realization that she would never get to do some things with her dad hit her, and she felt bad, awful. She realized that the promise made during the fondest memory of her childhood would never be fulfilled, that she would never get to do those things she had looked forward to doing back in the day, but she also realized new things.

Because her father was no longer alive, she had the life she did right then. The death of her father had been what pushed her into following in his footsteps rather than her mother’s, and from that she got Trixie, Dan, Lucifer, even... Her entire life. She would never change a single thing from it all, even if it meant she would have to deal with the ball hitting the button every once in a while.

That moment right there was hard, it was almost as hard as it could possibly get, but she’d be able to get through that, she had done it before.

She had a motor, a purpose: her family. All four of them would always be a constant, they would always help her pull through if she knew they were at the end of the path. They were a direct consequence of what had happened when she was only nineteen years old, and because of that she knew she would be fine, because of that she knew she would see her dad again, someday.

She would be fine, they would be all right.   


“We’ll be alright, won’t we?” She asked shakily, holding onto Lucifer like a lifeline. He was her lifeline.   


“We’ll be, my darling. We’ll be...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the clickbait, but in my defense, it did get emotional. No babies today, I’m afraid.
> 
> I have to give credits for the grief analogy, which was originally posted on Twitter by Lauren Herschel, but I felt it was so fitting. I never came across a loss so large as Chloe and Lucifer have, but I totally understand the feeling from other things. They’re still losses but not by death, which somehow makes a little bit worse hahaha. 
> 
> Tell me what you thought of this down here by the comments and I’ll see you with chapter 26! Take care!


	26. Chapter XXVI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys!!! WTF?? How are we over 20k hits and almost 800 kudos?? That’s insane, thank you so damn much!! You really have no idea how much that means to me!
> 
> So, as we’re nearing the end of this (not really though, there’s still 7-8 chapters more to update), I’m finding myself with some sort of lack of inspiration. It’s not a writer’s block because I already know what’s gonna happen from here and up until the end, I’ve known for a while, but I’m just finding it harder to get chapters done. It always happens to me when I’m nearing the end of my projects, and it has even caused me to stop writing on them altogether (namely, the Larry Stylinson fanfiction I have up here in my AO3), which is something I really do not want to happen! 
> 
> One thing that really motivates me is hearing what you guys think of the story and my writing! It makes me want to do more and better because y’all deserve it! I crave your comments so much, you have no idea! So please, keep them coming because you are even motivating me to create new storylines for future fanfictions without even knowing! I already have 3 layouts done for future fanfictions and I’m so excited to start writing on those and hear what you guys think about them.
> 
> It might take you a couple of minutes, but to me, reading that comment is like getting to know a little piece of you and it honestly makes me soooo happy! 
> 
> I love you all soooo much! You’re the best part of my life and I couldn’t be more thankful for every single one of you! 
> 
> Take care, stay safe, and remember to always stand up for what you believe in!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Chloe ended up being diagnosed with preeclampsia during her hospital stay.

What it meant was that her blood pressure was expected to be unusually high and unstable, and that her liver and kidneys could end up mildly damaged, too. The only way to get rid of it would be delivering the babies, but since the doctors were able to stabilize her rather quickly and her blood pressure remained within a reasonable range for the rest of her stay at the hospital, they chose to go on with the pregnancy. The thing that had changed was that, since her blood pressure was expected to be high, the blood flow to the placenta would be worse, and therefore there was a chance the babies could come out with a low birth weight. However, since Chloe was already so far along, it wasn't an issue. The working theory, celestially speaking, was that somehow, the baby that held the celestial powers —or both of them if they did— somehow interrupted their blood flow towards the placenta and therefore, since the preeclampsia was an underplaying issue, Chloe's blood pressure skyrocketed and she passed out. Ever since Chloe had been released it hadn't happened again, and Chloe's blood pressure had remained at a healthy, stable number.

Doctor Carter had suggested that Chloe lead a life with less stress and as little movement as possible, ideally, that she stopped working. However, pleading that working was what kept her sane and that it didn't stress her at all, she decided to keep on working until the twins decided to make their arrival.

Fast forward a month and Chloe was seriously done with being pregnant.

Given her diagnosis and the lifestyle she leads, she chose to keep on working and wait for the twins to arrive thinking it would happen two weeks after her admission at last. Now, she had grown so large it was physically difficult to keep on working at her desk job, and she had to take breaks to walk around the precinct because she couldn't feel her legs after being on a desk chair for so long. Honestly, the idea of an induction didn't sound so bad anymore.

At her last appointment, her doctor had chosen the date June 1st to be the induction day. She would be turning thirty-eight weeks pregnant, which was a week over what was considered ideal for fraternal twins, and hopefully she would deliver that same day or maybe on June 2nd. Honestly, she didn't have much hope. Back when she was pregnant with Trixie, it had taken her almost three days of labor to dilate and be able to deliver her, and she knew inductions could make things go by even slower. All they had left to do, however, was wait until June 1st and hope that no complications came their way since a cesarean section was not a viable option.

When the worry about Chloe’s health scare died down, the excitement for the engagement rose. Everyone had been thrilled to know that Chloe and Lucifer would be tying the knot, but weirdly enough, no one had seen it coming. Lucifer had been able to keep his intentions under wraps, only trusting Maze with some information here and there, up until the date he decided to pop the question. Ella even organized a small engagement party at the precinct once she found out and Chloe was discharged from the hospital, overwhelming them a little but in the nicest way possible. The teasing about passing out during the proposal had been endless for both Lucifer and Chloe but in all honestly, they couldn't be happier, and they would deal with all the teasing in the world if it meant they could count on all the beautiful people they worked with.

Currently, it was Sunday, May 31st and Chloe Decker was sat at her desk, working. Why? Because a high profile case had been dropped on Daniel's shoulders and therefore, it had to involve Lucifer and Chloe as well.

It was nearing eight in the evening and Chloe couldn't think anymore.

She had been having awful back pain all day long and ever since the night before, so much that it managed to keep her up for a couple of hours. Having to switch between walking and sitting was taking a toll on her, and she would be induced to have her babies on the next day. Why was she even working? Only God knew, but she needed to get her mind off the stress and the nerves that thinking about the delivery of her twins made her feel. She really wasn't prepared, she wasn't prepared at all, and Lucifer wasn't either. Actually, she worried about how Lucifer would take on his role as a support person during labor almost as much as she worried about handling two, newborn celestial beings that had the possibility of being born with wings. Yeah, she was doing absolutely fine.

One good thing about being at the precinct on a Sunday and so late during the day, though, was that it was almost empty. Not even the lieutenant had gone to work, and they were using the installations amongst a few other cops that had chosen to go on the weekend. She loved it when the precinct was calm.

"Oh, man, you really aren't listening to a thing I'm saying, are you?" Ella's voice brought her back to Earth, making her stop freaking out about the fact that her babies would be earthside in less than a couple of days, maybe even hours if she was lucky.

"Sorry," she apologized, bringing her eyes back to the case file. Her back was really killing her. "Sorry, I just... My mind is elsewhere,"

"Yeah, probably in the fact that you're having those two tomorrow. What are you even doing here?" Ella truly couldn't believe how Chloe was working the day before giving birth. Lucifer had definitely been right when he said that if his children were anything like him, they'd love to do an elegantly late entrance to the world. Chloe couldn't believe how late it actually was, it was a miracle on itself how she was still pregnant at thirty-eight weeks.

"I need to get my mind off that, and work helps," she said, pushing her chair back and trying to find some comfort with her back against the backrest. She didn't know what to do with her bump anymore, it was too large. During her appointments, her doctor would measure it with a tape and it would put her at forty-four weeks of gestation in size if she were pregnant with just one baby, which was just crazy to think of.

"How's Lucifer handling it?" Ella asked, clearly drifting off the topic of the conversation towards the more personal side of things, and Chloe was really glad, and really not glad about it at the very same time. She felt like she needed to vent and that she wanted to keep it all to herself.

"Actually, he's driving me nuts," she confessed, giving in to the charms of Ella's eyes. Ella could be so persuasive sometimes.

"Wanna talk about it?" And Chloe just had to give in, Ella was special.

"Can we just go for a walk and I'll tell you?" She needed a walk, she couldn't feel her legs anymore. Honestly, she was so done with pregnancy, she couldn't wait to not be pregnant anymore, and at the same time, she wanted her babies to never be born. It had happened with Trixie, too, but the divine aspect of things just added stress and anxiety to the pile.

"What is this, your sixth walk of the day?" Ella agreed, smiling smugly at Chloe as the poor, too pregnant woman brought herself to her feet. That was a whole another challenge on itself, going from sitting to standing, even more so when her back was killing her as much as it was right then.

"Ella, have you seen how pregnant I am? I'm going to die of a stroke if I don't move once every two hours," Chloe complained, placing both of her hands on her lower back and applying soft pressure, hoping it would make her feel better. She had about fourteen pounds of baby in her stomach, it was only logical her back would be the one most affected by it all.

"Don't yell at me, you get scary when you do that," Ella joked as she went to Chloe's aid, holding out her arm for her to grab on to. Lucifer and Daniel were out on the field, so at least she didn't have to deal with a fidgety devil. "How are things, huh? You can tell me, I'll pretend I understand why you're still working while you look like this,"

"Thanks," she said sarcastically, taking a couple of tentative steps —waddling, of course— before picking up a pace and starting to wander around the precinct. She couldn't wait to not be waddling once her pregnancy was over. "I seriously don't know how or why I made it this far,"

"You look like you're about to burst," Ella said, walking beside her at a slow pace. Chloe could only do so much as of lately.

"You've been saying that since before I stepped into the third trimester, it's not funny anymore," although now she really looked like she couldn't get any larger. She wouldn't, thankfully.

"No, but seriously, Chlo, that must be uncomfortable,"

"It is, very," at least the twins had dropped a couple of days ago and she wasn't carrying them so high anymore. It put a strain on her lower back but at least she could breathe a lot better.

"Oh man, I'll never have children," Chloe was positive she had scared Ella for life, and that was a hard thing to do.

"Oh, don't say that! Children are great, and I know I'm complaining now but I'm sure the second they're born I'm going to cry about how much I miss being pregnant," hormones during pregnancy could be hard, but the worse thing was that pregnant people don't stop being hormonal the moment they give birth, they keep on feeling hormonal for a good while afterward.

"How are things? Are you excited? Nervous? What are you feeling?" That was such an Ella question to ask, always concerned about people's feelings and emotions. She truly was a sweetheart.

"I don't know, really," Chloe sighed, trying to put into words all the emotions her pregnancy and imminent motherhood made her feel. "I can't wait to not be uncomfortable anymore, but I'm not sure I can deal with two newborns at the same time,"

"People do it all the time,"

"I know, but I'm nervous. What if we can't? I have Trixie, who's going to be over the moon, and I have Lucifer, and I don't even have to explain how that front is right now," Chloe could swear she had never seen Lucifer look more nervous.

"I know, he looks restless. I'm not sure he's handling it as well as he says he is," Chloe kind of loved how Ella could be so direct sometimes.

"He's trying to tell himself everything's gonna be fine but he's being more of a pain in the ass than the usual. His insecurities always get the best of him," she winced mid-sentence, feeling a quite sharp pain on her lower back. She would kill for a massage if she could lay on her stomach. "I love him to death, though, and I get why he's feeling like that,"

"Poor Linda," and yeah, poor Linda indeed.

"You get the fact that he cleaned all of the twins' wardrobe when he heard that babies had to be in clean environments, right? Four times," he had hand washed every single little thing the twins owned out of fear something could happen to them. It was endearing just as much as it was annoying. "He packed the hospital bag over a month ago and I think he's gone through it at least five times ever since then, checking to see if we have everything we may need,"

"He's just being attentive, Chlo," and while it always brought a smile to Chloe's face whenever she saw him so concerned, it also made her want some peace and quiet.

"I know he is," she smiled small, unconsciously playing with the beautiful ring that had been on her left ring finger for almost a month then. They had been preparing for their twins' arrival so much they hadn't even spoken a word about the wedding yet.

Her thoughts about the wedding and Lucifer's attentiveness came to a halt the moment she felt her belly tighten, letting her know she was having a contraction. It wasn't really painful or anything, it was just a Braxton Hicks, but ever since she had been admitted, she couldn't help it but hope each Braxton Hicks would be the first contraction of early labor.

"Are you okay?" Ella asked Chloe when she saw her grab onto the counter of the precinct's kitchen and slowly push her hips back, helping relieve the pressure. They were sort of painful, more uncomfortable than anything, but they weren't like labor contractions at all, not by a long shot. Those were up to the date, the most painful thing Chloe had ever gone through.

"Yeah, just..." she sighed, breathing and talking through the uncomfortable pressure. "A Braxton Hicks contraction,"

"You sure?" Ella asked with concern, placing her cup back on the counter and going to Chloe's aid. "You sure you're not going into labor on me?"

"Yeah, yeah," she sighed, breathing in and out as slowly and deeply as she could. Ella truly had no idea how hard pregnancy could be. "These are nothing like labor contractions,"

"It would be so awful if you went into labor the day before the induction, right?" And yeah, Ella did have a point there. If she could go into labor on her own, why would her body decide to get started the day before she got her induction? However, she wouldn't be mad if she suddenly went into labor, she was far too done with pregnancy to care.

"Honestly, I wouldn't care. I just want these two out of me," she stood straight once again, feeling the last bits of pressure from her Braxton Hicks contraction before finally composing herself.

"Are you scared of giving birth?" And oh well, the answer to that question was broad, to say the least. She was scared of giving birth to two celestial beings, and the fact that she wouldn't be able to have a C-section if things got complicated. If she were having just plain, human twins she wouldn't be as troubled by the birthing process as she actually was.

In a way, she would like to talk to Ella about those things, but she knew that if Lucifer proved to her he really was the devil, they would be going against her faith and beliefs, against what she wanted. Thankfully, she still had Linda and she could vent to her about all her not-of-this-world fears.

"I don't know. It's like... I've done it before, and I sort of know what to expect, but I also don't," the human body could be awful sometimes, making pregnant people forget about what the pain was actually like. If she could one hundred percent remember how she felt during her last labor, she would have never gotten pregnant again.

"I mean, you're going to try and give birth to twins naturally, and I'm assuming the pregnancies were different, too, right?"

"You have no idea," she really didn't. When she was pregnant with Trixie she wasn't indestructible as she was now, for starters. "I'm just hoping everything goes well, that's all,"

"What does a contraction even feel like?" Ella could be so curious it was endearing.

"I can't really explain it to you, it's like..." and then, just as she was going to try and put into words what a contraction felt like, another Braxton Hicks took a hold of her, making her stop in her tracks to try and relieve the pressure on her pelvic floor.

"Chlo, what is it? Are you okay?" Ella was quick to notice something was wrong because of the way Chloe's face twisted. She hadn't been expecting that contraction and she surely hadn't been expecting it to actually hurt this time.

"Contraction," Chloe mumbled out, fighting her instinct of holding her breath while the pain of the contractions hugged her stomach. It wrapped around it like a hug from behind, starting on her lower back and taking over her belly like branches, and while it wasn't as hard as it could get, it was still painful.

"Are you hurting? Why can't you talk? You talked through the last one," Ella stated, trying to understand what was going on while Chloe held onto the counter for dear life. She really wasn't expecting another one of those, much less the pain it brought with it.

"It's... Shit, this one really hurts," she mumbled through it, trying to not hold her breath and also not panic. Her last labor had definitely not been like that, she couldn't be in labor and that thought managed to soothe her mind.

"Do you want me to do anything? A back massage? A heating pad? Do you want me to call Lucifer?" Ella was really out of her element, she didn't know what to do.

"Don't call Lucifer," Chloe was quick to say, starting to come back to herself slowly as the contraction came to an end. Having Lucifer right there could be the most counterproductive move ever, she didn't want to have him freaking out over Braxton Hicks like he always did.

"Then what do I do?" It was so sweet that she was worried.

"Nothing. I'm not in labor, just... calm down," she sighed out of relief when the contraction came to an end, that one having managed to knock the breath out of her.

"How do you know you're not in labor?" Ella questioned, helping Chloe stand straight once again.

"Active labor contractions are far worse than this, believe me," she shifted the weight of her body between her legs a couple of times, trying to get rid of the uncomfortable pressure on her pelvic floor. "You can start worrying when I can't talk through one of them,"

"I still think we should be timing them, you had two in what? A bit over five minutes?" Ella could act so much like Lucifer sometimes, worrying about things she shouldn't worry about. It was really sweet, though.

"Ella, seriously, I'm fine," she brought her hands to her belly, noticing how it hadn't lost its tenderness after the contraction like it normally would. She was quick to decide she wouldn’t say anything about it, though, but she did realize that if she kept on feeling like that by the end of the day, then she would definitely call her doctor and ask him about it.

"Why don't we go to your desk and start timing them? Maybe you'll get more," Ella placed a hand on the small of Chloe's back and, grabbing her by her right hand, started walking towards her desk, adamant on wanting to time the contractions.

"Ella, I'm fine," Chloe insisted, letting herself be guided towards her desk.

"Maybe you're not, I'm not taking any chances," she could be so stubborn some times.

"Seriously, you have no idea what labor contractions are like, these two aren't going anywhere," deep down Chloe knew there would be no way to get Ella to calm down.

"You could be going into labor on me, I don't know how to deal with that," she complained.

"Ella..."

"What if you end up having the babies here in the precinct if we don't do something?" Could she be freaking out? Chloe couldn't tell, she had far more important things to worry about.

"Ella..." she repeated, hoping the forensics scientists would pay attention to her instead of freaking out.

"How do you even deliver a baby?" Yeah, she was definitely freaking out.

"Ella..." Chloe came to a halt, stopping in the middle of the precinct's wide hall and looking at her friend with round, big eyes, coming upon a moment of realization.

"What? Are you all right? What's wrong?" And of course, that worried the forensic scientist.

"I think..." Chloe looked down, but she was completely unable to see past her big belly. However, the all too known feeling made memories from over ten years ago come back to her mind. "I think my water just broke,"

"No way," Ella looked down as well, finding Chloe's maternity jeans soaked from her groin to down past her knees. "You're kidding, you have to be kidding,"

"I'm not," and just as she got those two words out of her mouth, a contraction hit her, wrapping up her belly in the most painful of ways and putting pressure on her pelvis. "Fuck," she mumbled, grabbing onto Ella's forearms for dear life as more amniotic fluid gushed out of her.

"Oh no, now you're swearing. This is bad, this is really bad," the contraction Chloe was having was bad. She could remember how after her water had broken with Trixie, contractions had really picked up. She had only had two, how could her water have broken with only two contractions? It had taken her two days to get there with Trixie. "What do I do?"

"Just..." she sighed, telling herself to keep breathing and asking herself why on Earth didn't she and Lucifer go to birth preparation classes. "Just, let it pass..."

"The lieutenant is gonna be pissed when she finds out," Ella, always helpful.

"Don't you think I know that?" She grunted. It was okay, she was in labor but she could talk, that had to mean something.

"Is it getting better? Please, tell me it's getting better," Chloe started breathing at a more normal rate as the pain slowly subsided. It had reached its maximum peak and then it had come back down, giving her a moment to breathe properly and think. She really wasn't expecting to go into labor on her own.

"I'm good now," she told her, lessening the grip on Ella's forearms and standing upright.

"What do I do? Do I call Lucifer?" Ella asked, and Chloe had to take a couple of seconds to breathe.

If Ella called Lucifer right then, the devil would be at the precinct in a matter of minutes, maybe even seconds. She needed to have a plan, she needed to know what they would do once Lucifer got there. She needed her and the babies' hospital bags, all her documents and paperwork, and she needed to know how far along into labor she was. Now that her water had broken, she was sure she was in active labor, but as of then, she hadn't felt the urge to push during a contraction, which meant she still had some time on her hands.

"Don't call him yet, I'll call my doctor and I'll tell him I'm coming first," she flimsily grabbed her phone from her pocket, making quick work of remembering the minute when her contraction ended to try and time how far apart they were before going to her contacts and calling doctor Carter.

"Doctor Jeremy Carter?" He answered on the other side of the line; Chloe feeling thankful that he had been quick to pick up the phone. 

"Doctor? It's Chloe Decker," she said panting, still trying to recover from her last contraction. It hadn't been one of the worst she could get, but it had managed to knock the breath out of her. "Are you on call? I think my water just broke,”

"I'm on call, yes. Are you having any contractions? Is the liquid clear?" He asked calmly, trying to assess the situation and decide if Chloe should go to the hospital or not.

"I... I can't really tell. I had two contractions, my water broke, and then I had another one," she was really hoping her next contraction came with a bit more time to spare.

"Have you had any back pain these last couple of days? Maybe a couple of frequent Braxton Hicks that went away?" He asked again.

"Yes, my back's been hurting since last night. I haven't had any regular contractions," she scrunched up her face when the pressure of one of the babies' heads became uncomfortable. "Do I go to the hospital?"

"Yes, of course. Come as quickly as you can and with all your bags, you've definitely been having back labor," she should have known, why hadn't she realized? It had been so different from what her labor with Trixie had been, so much that she was naïve enough to blame it solely on the weight she was carrying.

"Okay, okay. Thank you..." she panted a bit before hanging up the call, feeling her belly tighten, as if it were threatening her with the prospect of another contraction. Thankfully, it went away quickly, not becoming one after all. "Okay, call Lucifer," she told Ella, to which the forensic scientist pulled out her phone and quickly dialed the devil's number, putting him on speakers.

"Miss Lopez, any news on the case?" He asked on the other side of the line with his usual, charming voice, completely unaware of the situation going on down by the precinct.

"Uh, not exactly," she said, letting all her worry filter right through her words. Chloe started feeling how her stomach hardened once again.

"What's going on?" The speed in which his voice changed from his usual sassy, smug tone to a more worried one made Chloe's head spin. "Is she okay?" His mind immediately drifted towards Chloe and his unborn children, assuming something was wrong.

"Yeah, she is, just... Okay, I... Chloe's water just broke," she voiced, and Chloe was able to picture his face changing as her fourth contraction hit her, making her swear from how great the pain was.

"Lucifer, you son of a bitch!" She was quick to take a hold of the closest surface she could find, McMillan's desk, and do what her body told her to do. She spread her legs just a bit and pushed her hips backward, letting gravity pull on her belly towards the floor as she felt the pain of the contraction take over her. How glad she was of the fact that she didn't feel the urge to push because if that were the case, things would have escalated far quicker than what was actually happening.

"And she's swearing... and she never swears and I don't know what to do," Ella added to her previous statement, seeing how that new contraction was getting Chloe's jeans even wetter.

"I'll be right there," he said quickly and sternly before hanging up the call, leaving Ella to fend for herself with a very in-pain Chloe.

"Holy shit, I'd forgotten how bad these things actually were," she mumbled as she shifted her weight back and forth between her legs, trying to cope with the pain as best as she could and just doing what her body told her to do.

"What do you need me to do? You want me to call a taxi? Dan and Lucifer are at least forty minutes away, you can't be here like this," Chloe just couldn't think from how great the pain was.

"Just... Wait, he'll be here any minute," she mumbled through the pain, not caring about the fact that Ella probably wouldn't understand a thing of what was going on.

"Chloe, that's crazy, they're in Santa Clarita, they'll never make it on time!" And then, just as Ella finished her sentence, a very disheveled devil walked through the precinct's front door with worry in his eyes, looking for the love of his life.

“Where is she?!” He asked the poor guy that worked at the front desk during the weekends, looking like a hurricane had gone past him on the way there. He then saw Chloe and Ella down by McMillan’s desk, so he rushed towards them.

“Lucifer, what the Hell?" Ella voiced, but the devil paid no attention to her whatsoever, his focus being on Chloe, and only Chloe.

"What’s wrong, what...?” then his eyes caught a glimpse of her soaked jeans.

"How on Earth did you get here all the way from Santa Clarita in less than a minute?" Ella insisted, trying to keep her freaking out under wraps but failing miserably."That's a conversation for another time, Miss Lopez. Now, what happened here?" Right as he said that, both of them noticed how Chloe started to come back to herself, beginning to stand upright because the contraction was now over, or at least close to being over.

"I had..." she panted, still feeling the havoc that the last contraction had caused in her body. Lucifer immediately brought his hands to her shoulders, examining her and trying to find out what was wrong. His knowledge about childbirth couldn’t possibly be vaguer. "I literally just had two contractions and my water just broke," she explained, taking a hold of his forearms and trying to stabilize herself. She felt wet and disgusting, and the only thing she wanted right then was getting those two babies out of her body, nothing else.

"I... Wha... What does that even mean?" He asked, clueless about the things the female body had to go through before the birth of a child. Chloe mentally face palmed herself for not having shown Lucifer a video about childbirth.

"That I'm in labor, you idiot," and yes, she could see very well that she tended to swear a lot during moments of great stress and pain. Daniel could vouch for that.

"Okay, the spawns are coming, the spawns are coming," he said and repeated nervously, wanting to pace around the room but staying still because Chloe was holding on to him like a lifeline. "What do we do?" If Chloe loved him just a tiny bit less, she would have punched him.

"I've called doctor Carter, he told me to go in," she explained, balancing her weight to try and alleviate the pressure on her pelvis. She wasn't having a contraction but that could still be uncomfortable, nonetheless.

"Come on then, we’ll be there in a second," Lucifer attempted to grab Chloe bridal style, insinuating he would just unfurl his wings in the parking lot and take her to the hospital by means of flying. Chloe was seriously questioning how her past self didn’t think birth coaching was necessary.

“Lucifer, stop that, I can walk,” she chose not to address the intentions she had clearly been able to see within his words because Ella was still watching the whole thing. “I’m okay, I know my body, it’ll be a while before they get here but this just means we’ve got to get moving, okay?” She tried to explain, softening her voice just a little.

“So, what do we do?” He asked again, looking just every bit as clueless as Chloe had ever seen him.

“We’re gonna go home, grab our bags, the car seats, and head to the hospital, okay?” Lucifer nodded, trying to calm himself down and prevent his mind from wandering into the thought that his children were on the way... quite literally. “Are you okay to drive?”

“We could just—” he was about to suggest flying, Chloe could read him like an open book.

“None of that, we’re taking my car,” she took advantage of her momentary lack of pain to take a strong hold of Lucifer’s hand, ready to leave work.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to call a taxi?” Ella asked, looking at the couple with worry before her eyes drifted down to Chloe’s soaked jeans.

“Yes, we are,” Chloe told her, breathing slowly and telling herself not to lose her shit because if she did, then they would be screwed. “Thank you so much for being here with me, we’ll keep you posted, okay?” She turned around with every intention of walking to the exit, hoping to have her next contraction once she got inside the car. “Oh, and please, tell Dan to take Trixie to his place,”

“I think he knows,” Ella said as he smiled tightly, looking at the nervous couple about to welcome their babies into the world. “You guys got this, good luck!” She gave them her thumbs up, already praying for them inside her mind.

“Thank you, Miss Lopez. We’re definitely going to need some of that,” said the devil before walking away, trying to convince himself they were ready for August and Claire’s arrival.

It couldn’t be too hard, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, shit has hit the fan *author has left the group chat* hahaha
> 
> I’ll see you with next chapter and maaaaaaybe we’ll get to meet these two little muffins that we’ve been dying to meet for 26 chapters! 
> 
> Tell me what you think about this! Did you like having Ella go through part of this with Chloe?
> 
> Take care!


	27. Chapter XXVII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so... that person I told it would take me 24hs to update... well, it took me 48, so sorry!
> 
> I have great news y’all! I’ve set up an Instagram fan account! It’s @crime_solvingdevil because someone who doesn’t even post things about Lucifer stole the username without any underscores. You can reach out to me and we can talk privately if you wish! I’m also posting some quote and scene edits I make, you should check it out!
> 
> Without any further adieu, I’ll leave you to chapter 27 because I feel like you are far too eager to read for me to keep this note going any longer.
> 
> Stay safe and take care!
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> P.S. I went over this 8,2k word monster twice, so if there are any mistakes it’s because I’m sleep deprived!

"Can you stop pacing around?"

The arrival to the hospital and the time that followed had been... tough, for lack of a better word.

They arrived at the hospital at quarter to nine in the evening, having gone through one tough drive from the precinct to their home, and then from their home to the hospital. Lucifer had been blabbering nonstop, trying to find ways to comfort Chloe as the contractions came and went but being completely unable to. Chloe was surprised at how well she was handling the situation, though, having expected to feel more annoyed than endeared. It was really sweet how worried he was about her and how much he hated seeing her in pain, so much that it managed to make up for all the nervousness and fidgety-ness she had to deal with ever since her water broke. Although he wasn't successful at comforting Chloe and easing her pain, he managed to bring a smile to her face that also enhanced the feeling of excitement the arrival of their children meant. She knew that it would hurt beforehand, and she could see that at the very beginning her focus had been only on the pain and discomfort contractions entailed. Now that she could bring the excitement into the mixture, she found herself able to cope with the pain a bit better. She'd do anything for her babies, all three of them.

Upon their arrival, Chloe insisted that she would do her check-in, leaving Lucifer standing by the door with two suitcases, two car seats and a lot of anxiety, pleading that he would just do a scene when the health care personal took too long to admit her.

After explaining her situation at the front desk in the labor and delivery ward, she was put into triage; the doctors having taken a sample of the fluid to prove it was her water, amongst hooking her to three different monitors, a blood pressure strap, and doing an ultrasound to check on the babies' position. Upon examination, both the ultrasound and the testing proved that baby A's water was the one that had broken, meaning that little August had been the one to kickstart his mom into labor and would most likely be the first one to be born since he was still at the bottom.

Chloe was astonished to find, though, that at nine pm when they admitted her she was already dilated to a six. She had honestly been expecting to have to deal with the pain of active labor for at least eighteen hours before she got to the actual delivery, which made her feel relieved but it also made her question how on Earth it was possible that she progressed so quickly and without having noticed. Maybe it had to do with one or both of her babies being celestials, she would never know.

Fast forward four hours and Chloe wasn't sure how she had been able to bear with labor for two days once upon a time.

"You're going to leave a hole on the floor if you keep at it," she insisted, taking her contraction break to lightly scold the devil. He was so nervous, it was heart-wrenching.

"I can't," he said, walking back and forth in front of Chloe.

Chloe was strapped to contraction and heart rate monitors on her belly, to a blood pressure band on her arm, and with electrodes all over her chest. She had ditched her soaked jeans and tee shirt for a hospital gown, and was now bouncing on a pilates ball to try and alleviate the pressure she felt while she wasn't having contractions.

Ever since baby B's water had broken a bit over an hour ago, things had escalated rather quickly, and the pressure she felt on her pelvis was really great. It wasn't the instinctive urge you push many people felt during the late stages of active labor, but more the weight and pressure baby August's head was putting on her birth canal.

The issue now, instead of just being dealing with a nervous devil, was the pain management option Chloe chose. None.

"I don't understand why you don't want something to feel less pain, that's just stupid," the devil argued, keeping up his pacing around the room. He'd go to Chloe's aid whenever she had a contraction and press on two points on her lower back that a nurse taught him to, before doing back to walking nervously.

"If to feel less pain I have to be drugged and groggy, then I don't want it," she said, moving her hips in circles while holding on to the bed.

"And what about that epidural thing the doctor mentioned?" He really was clueless when it came to childbirth.

"I've told you this before. I had it with Trixie and besides being extremely painful, it left me unable to walk for twelve hours after I had her. There's no way I'm getting that thing again," she grunted towards the end of the sentence, feeling another painful contraction take a hold of her. "Come here, please," she managed to say, wanting his support.

Lucifer went over to her and with all the care in the world, moved her arms from the bed to seat himself on it instead, letting Chloe grab onto his thighs as he leaned over her and pressed those two points the nurse had taught him to on her back. He could complain and be as much of a nervous wreck as he wanted, but when it came to being there for Chloe he would always do the best he could.

"It is truly amazing how quickly you can switch from arguing to being there for each other in times of need,"

Chloe came upon a moment during her hospital stay where she just couldn't deal with her own nerves anymore, and the weight of Lucifer's nerves and the expectations they had totally overcome her. At that moment, the best thing she could do to ease both herself and the devil was, of course, call Doctor Linda.

When hearing her observation, both Lucifer and Chloe remained quiet; the detective going through a tough contraction and the devil helping her through it as best as he could.

"Lucifer, you have to understand that women can feel really sensitive during labor, we feel vulnerable," Linda explained to him once she saw Chloe sit straight on the pilates ball, understanding the contraction was over.

"That's it, listen to her," Chloe said while panting, still recovering from the pain. The contractions had picked up a pace, being one minute long and every one and a half to two minutes. They were only waiting for her to dilate to a ten before she could start pushing.

"You have to respect what she wants, and if she doesn't want pain management, you should leave it at that," they had been going on at that for over two hours. Lucifer just couldn't understand why Chloe would go through something so painful without any pain management medication. "You know, as your therapist, I try to not tell you what to do. But as your friend and as a woman who has delivered a celestial being before I tell you: leave her alone,"

"Linda, I'm so glad you're here," Chloe said, looking at the therapist that had driven over to the hospital in her pajamas because of the urgent tone in the devil's voice.

"You'll do amazing, Chloe. You already are doing amazing, it'll be over soon," Chloe gave her a smile that turned into a grimace quite quickly. She was just so uncomfortable she couldn't stand herself, but she was so happy at the same time.

"I just can’t stand seeing you in pain," the devil confessed, holding Chloe’s hands and lightly stroking her skin, deeply concerned about her. 

“I know you can’t, but it’ll be over soon and we’ll have our two babies with us. They’re worth all of this,” Chloe said, softening her voice as she looked up to the love of her life, thankful that even if it was difficult, he would come around leaving topics aside when needed. “Woah, this is really happening, isn't it?" She mumbled a couple of seconds later, having come to the realization that those were her last hours of pregnancy. Things were really going to end and begin that night. She smiled softly and leaned forward, hugging Lucifer's thighs for comfort as she moved her hips in circles, trying to relieve some of the pressure that the last contraction had put on her. "They're really going to be born tonight,"

"I can't believe it myself," the devil said, and Chloe was able to hear the smile in his voice.

"I was at an eight an hour and a half ago, I mean... I could be at a ten right now," Chloe realized, shocked by how quickly she had progressed this time around, amazed by her body.

"How are we going to do this?" Lucifer asked with his usual concern.

"We'll be just fine, you'll see," she said with her cheek resting against Lucifer's right thigh. "I wonder what they'll look like," she needed to keep her mind off the pain and resort to the sole thing that helped her pull through what labor meant: the thought that her children would be earthside within hours.

"I hope they have your eyes," Lucifer said calmly, rubbing Chloe's back as he saw how she stopped making circles with her hips, sign that another contraction was beginning. "And your hair, and your nose,”

"You'd want two mini me's?" Neither of them noticed how Linda busied herself with her phone to leave them the moment for themselves, smiling softly as she thought of the great development Lucifer had had over the years, most of it thanks to the woman he was now holding.

"I wouldn't be mad at that," he almost whispered, wrapping himself and his loved one in a cocoon of comfort and peace as another contraction took over Chloe.

"Will you sing for me, please?" She managed to get those six words out before the pain of the contraction became too much, focusing on her breathing instead.

Lucifer started humming as he pressed his thumbs to either side of her spine on her lower back, trying to bring her some comfort through his voice and his touch. Through his mind were flashing all the things that could go wrong, everything that having Chloe go through the birthing process entailed, all that his children arriving in the world meant.

He was afraid, there was no denying of that.

He had been afraid ever since Chloe first told him she was pregnant, and that the baby —then babies— was his. He had been afraid ever since the moment he realized that the fast thuds often lulling him to sleep were his children's heartbeats. He had been afraid ever since the very first time he could connect with his two little urchins: the first time he saw them on ultrasound. He had been afraid ever since the first little kicks could be felt on Chloe's stomach, and the feeling only grew larger and larger as the kicks grew stronger and time passed.

He was afraid but not of them or of the pregnancy, as he had been at the very beginning. The thing that scared him the most was himself. He was afraid of failing them, of being unable to meet their needs, of being the cause for their unhappiness.

The truth was that, as the fear grew and changed its object —first the spawns themselves, then parenthood, and so on—, love for the babies and the idea of them started to grow inside the devil's heart. His fear wasn't of them, it was his usual fear of failure, fear of doing them wrong. He hated failing people, but most of all, he hated failing the people he cared about the most. Those two little urchins had become one of those people, and Lucifer hadn't even met them yet.

He was excited as well, he wasn't just afraid. He wondered what they would look like, if they'd be more like him or like his detective, how would their personalities be. He wanted to know who they'd become in the future, the people they'd turn out to be. It was surreal to think that inside Chloe's stomach were two beings that had all that potential, to think that she had grown them and nurtured them, and that her body would continue to do so even after they arrived. The only thing he would criticize about his father's design would be the pain gestating people are put through to bring said beings into the world, everything else was exceptional.

A little knock on the door popped their bubble, and without waiting for invitation a midwife came in, probably intending to check on Chloe's progress. It had been a while since someone had come in, Chloe having stated that she wanted to be left alone as much as possible.

"Hello Miss Decker, how are you feeling?" The nurse said amicably as she approached Chloe, who was just coming out of a contraction.

"Glad that my fiancé doesn't want to have any more kids," she said with some leftovers of the pain filtering through her voice, thrilled that the prospect of more children terrified Lucifer.

"Would you look at that? You do have some sense of humor in there, detective. I thought you didn't," he teased her, not thinking about what her statement meant or what it made him feel.

"Nature is a bitch, why would she make us forget about all of this?" She complained, slowly going back to a sitting position on top of the ball while the midwife looked at them with a small smile on her face as she checked her vitals.

"Okay, so, from what I'm seeing here, your blood pressure slightly increases whenever you're having a contraction, which is rather unique considering that we expect women with preeclampsia to have high blood pressure, but fairly even," the nurse said, looking at the heart rate monitor and the contraction monitors, comparing their readings.

"Does that endanger her or the babies?" Lucifer asked with worry in his voice, quickly shifting to his more serious stance. 

"While a rise in blood pressure during labor is expected, Chloe has preeclampsia, and her blood pressure is getting a little bit higher than we'd want it to be," by then they knew the only treatment would be delivering the babies. They could only hope things didn't escalate into eclampsia. "The thing we don't see a lot is blood pressure spiking only when contractions are happening, but it's within what's considered normal," the midwife walked over to where Chloe was sitting, looking amicably and overall nice. "Do you mind if we check to see how dilated you are?" Chloe gave her a grimace, not looking forward to how uncomfortable that was.

"Sure," she answered either way, taking advantage of the fact that she was momentarily contraction-free to stand up, and bring herself to the bed.

"Have you felt the urge to push yet?" She asked her while Chloe got herself as comfortable as possible on the bed, not looking forward to what came next.

"I'm not sure. I'm just feeling a lot of pressure, even when I'm not having contractions," she answered, laying back as the midwife put a pair of latex gloves on.

"Maybe that means it's time to push, we'll see," the midwife got to her job, checking to see how dilated Chloe actually was. "Have you gotten the chance to use the hot tub? I've heard it's great for pain management," she said as she looked at the hot tub on the corner of the room.

"Uh, no, I didn't want to risk—" and just as she was about to say what she didn't want to happen, Lucifer spoke up.

"Would that entail having you naked in a hot tub? Detective, you'd be back to your very beginnings," Lucifer teased her, getting out of the way so the midwife could actually do her job. 

"I didn't use it exactly because of that," she concluded, smiling softly at Lucifer and trying to feel less comfortable about the whole thing going on inside the room.

"Oh, of course. Chloe Decker, Hot Tub High School, how did I not realize?" The midwife said, giving Lucifer enough material to keep on with the teasing.

"Well, maybe if you'd seen her—" he tried, but Chloe interrupted him.

"That's enough," she scolded him, grabbing onto his hand and pulling him to stand beside her, not wanting to hear more of it. The hot tub high school days were a stain in her past.

"Chloe, I'm so glad to tell you you're there!" The midwife said excitedly, moving away from the end of the bed as she changed the topic of conversation. "You're at a ten! I'll call the doctor and we'll start setting up all of the stuff," and just as she started saying that, another contraction hit her, making the monitors beep around them. She winced in pain, feeling the instinct of curling up in a ball to alleviate some of the pain but being unable to. "Okay, Chloe, let's get you settled, is that alright?" She managed to nod, groaning in pain.

A couple of nurses entered the room and started setting up all the stuff the doctor might need during the delivery, getting the stirrups up from underneath the bed and pressing buttons over where two neonatal care stations were, preparing for the arrival of the babies as well. Ideally, Chloe should deliver in an OR in case there were any complications that needed immediate intervention, but given the fact that she was pregnant with at least one celestial being, then all three of them should be fine.

"Okay, let's get your feet up here and you do what your body tells you to do, alright?" Chloe nodded to the midwife's words, holding on tightly to Lucifer's hand and wishing she could just go back to the Pilates ball. She felt far more comfortable in that.

"I'm feeling a lot of pressure," she said in between grunts, scrunching up her face as the contraction hit her with all its strength. "Like, a lot,"

"Do you feel like you need to push?" The midwife asked once again, guiding herself with what Chloe was feeling.

"I don't know, I might," the detective mumbled, starting to breathe easier once the contraction started to diminish in intensity. 

"Just keep breathing, darling, okay? Tell us if you feel like you have to push, you've done this before," the midwife was such a sweetheart, Chloe loved her.

She was left on the bed with her legs high up on the stirrups, just waiting for the doctor to arrive and for something to actually happen. It was already one in the morning, so their babies would be June babies, which was a thought that crossed her mind as a way to avoid thinking that she was butt-naked and showing her private parts to whoever passed by the end of her bed and wanted to take a look. While it was an uncomfortable thing to think of, all she wanted to do was get those babies out of her body as soon as possible, she didn't care that much about being naked and exposed.

"Aren't you uncomfortable that anyone can just walk by and see your private parts?" Lucifer asked, almost as if he had been reading Chloe's mind. He could realize that his mechanism of defense against the stress the situation was causing him was to think and talk of anything else that went through his mind, that way he would take his focus off the fact that Chloe was very much doubling over in pain and that his children would be earthside any second now.

"Lucifer, do you really think that's something you should ask right now? She's about to give birth," Chloe was really thankful that she got to have and hear those kinds of conversations during her contraction-free intervals of time. They made her experience a lot better.

"It's okay, baby," Chloe said to him, dismissing Linda. "I'm so uncomfortable right now, all I care about is getting these two out," she brought her hands to her belly to give emphasis, which was still strapped with monitors. "I feel like my vagina is free real estate," she had been so shocked to hear herself say something like that, and she managed to confirm it had been shocking when she found she had been able to render Lucifer speechless when talking about sex organs.

Just as she tried to think of something to say to correct that previous comment, another contraction came her way, knocking the breath out of her. That had been by far the shortest contraction-free interval she had experienced.

"Fuck," she mumbled, unconsciously bearing down as she squeezed the life out of Lucifer's hand.

"Guys..." Linda commented, catching the attention of a couple of nurses and the midwife, who were still in the room. Her OB/GYN rotations at med school had been ages ago but Chloe totally looked like she was contributing to the pressure the contraction put on her, maybe without even realizing. "Guys, I think she's pushing,"

The midwife quickly rushed over to the chair at the end of the bed, sitting on it and putting a pair of clean, latex gloves on.

"That's alright, Chloe, keep doing what your body is telling you to do," she encouraged her, checking to see any progress. She had been definitely able to feel baby A's head when she last checked her. "Doctor Carter's on his way,"

"What is going on?" Lucifer asked confusedly, looking around at the midwife and then at Linda with all the worry his face could possibly hold.

"They're coming," Linda said, putting a hand on his shoulders. "Like, right now, it's a matter of minutes,"

"What do I do?" He finally stepped out of the attitude of trying to not think about what was happening, looking at Linda with so much emotion within his dark eyes it was impossible to not feel touched.

"You just have to hold her hand and be there for her, encourage her to keep pushing," Linda smiled sympathetically at him, worrying about how he would handle the situation.

"Ma'am, I'm afraid you can't stay here. Only one partner is allowed inside the delivery room," Linda was about to argue with the nurse that came over to tell her that, but she refrained herself from doing so and just nodded, wishing they were at the hospital where she had Charlie.

"You'll do well, Lucifer, and the babies will be born beautiful and healthy," she said, patting him on the shoulder as Chloe squeezed the life out of his left hand and pushed right beside them. "Just be there, be what she needs you to be, okay?" Lucifer was only able to deliver a small nod before Linda was walked to the exit by the nurse that came to tell her she couldn't stay. Said nurse gave a sympathetic look to Lucifer before going back to doing his tasks.

"That's alright, Chloe. Take a deep breath and go," he came back to reality, where Chloe's face was beet red from all the effort she was putting into pushing and all the monitors around them were beeping like crazy. "One, two, three..."

"Keep at it, you're doing well," and okay, that might have been the very first lie the devil ever told because he had no idea if she was doing well or not. He, too, was doing everything he possibly could.

"Blood pressure is rising," a nurse commented just as the doctor came inside the room, being immediately assisted by nurses to put on a pair of disposable scrubs, gloves, and all the sterile wear he had to use during delivery.

"What's going on?" He asked, walking over to where the midwife had been sitting and taking her place. She, however, just stood on the other side of the bed and held Chloe's left hand as she finished pushing, still counting to ten. Chloe stopped pushing once the contraction was over, panting heavily as she laid with her back against the reclined bed.

"She's at a ten, first round of pushing," the midwife explained, releasing Chloe's hand.

"Vitals?" He asked another nurse, who immediately took a look at the monitor.

"Heart rate one-sixty-seven, BP is one-fifty-two over one hundred. Baby A's at one-twelve and baby B at one-twenty-eight," they heard a nurse say, but Chloe was too busy getting in touch with her body, understanding what was going on.

Her stomach never relaxed, it was always tight. Someone had taken one of the monitors off, she couldn't really recall when it had been, but at least she felt lighter on that front. Her right hand was holding on to Lucifer's left one for dear life, taking refuge in his presence beside her and in the knowledge that he'd do anything to keep her and their little ones safe, in the knowledge that he loved her and that he was there. Even if he didn't know what to do, even if he was freaking out on the inside, even if he felt a hundred and one different kinds of fears regarding parenthood, he was still there.

It was at that moment that Chloe realized she couldn't possibly love him more.

She allowed her body to take the wheel, letting herself relax, giving permission to not focus on the cocktail of noises and beeping and voices around her and just feel. It was like an out of body experience where everything she could do was let her body take over and take refuge in the fact that the love of her life was right beside her, and that they were doing this together.

Another contraction came her way, and just like her body told her to do, she bore down and pushed with all her strengths, feeling the head of her son descending slowly, as if he were shyly trying to make his entrance to the world. It hurt, she wouldn't lie, but it would be so worth it in the end.

"Eight, nine, ten... take a breath and again!" All the noises, all the words coming her way were mixing together; her focus being solely on the counting and on the feelings going through her body.

"You're doing amazing, we'll meet August in no time," she felt Lucifer's lips brush over her forehead as he leaned over her bed, giving her all the support she needed, being the one to take on the role of the pillar, being him the one to let Chloe fall apart both physically and emotionally, being the one to allow her to be vulnerable without fear.

"Come on, Chloe, keep pushing! I can see his head!"

She felt so overwhelmed but so motivated, so ready to meet her children.

And she pushed. And pushed. And pushed. She gave her heart and soul for her children, for her little ones, and she faced each and every contraction with a push just as hard, helping the first of her little ones make his entrance to the world, helping him into their lives.

She was able to feel every single thing. She could feel how his body descended, how his head approached the outside and how it came through it, making sounds of pain break through her voice as she kept on pushing, never faltering.

She could feel every tear just heal back up as the birth went, she could feel every bit of pressure inside her body converge into one point with the only aim of bringing her son into the world.

She could feel her head throbbing, and that was alarming, to say the least.

"Blood pressure is up to one-sixty-eight over one-twenty-two," she heard someone say, and she was quick to connect the dots.

"Come on, Chloe, we have to do this fast," she heard the voice of her doctor who, while situated between her legs, was helping the head of her son crown.

"You are doing amazing,"

All the voices blurred together inside her head, but she got the message loud and clear; she had to push harder. And so she did. She bore down and pushed with all the strength her body could give, with all the determination her personality and character held, keeping in mind every single thing that moment in time meant. Her children were coming, her life would never be the same ever again.

"Head is out!"

She couldn't think, she couldn't feel anything other than her body and her baby's, she couldn't do anything other than keep pushing and pushing, other than keep on giving the best of herself for her children's sake.

Her senses were being overstimulated. Everyone was saying something, her body was going through childbirth, everything around her was moving so fast. She thought her head might just give out, that she'd go into sensory overload, that she wouldn't be able to keep up with it and that her body would fail her.

And then... Then it happened.

She felt every single bit of it, from the moment the head of her son was out, to when his shoulders and the rest of his body came out, allowing him to take his very first breath of air.

Everything had been like in slow motion, allowing Chloe to experience every single emotion and sensation with deep understanding, with a depth so great she felt like she'd never be able to forget it. She felt how Lucifer's hand no longer held hers, she felt how immediately after birth her son was put on her chest, how a couple of stranger hands dried him off and encouraged him to give them his first cry. She felt how her heart exploded in love, realizing she was once step closer to completing her family. 

"It's a boy!" the doctor announced. "One nineteen am,"

"Hi," she cried, greeting her little baby, bringing her hands to his back and touching him, getting to know him for the very first time. "Hi, my love,"

"He's here," and then she heard Lucifer's voice and, like a shock of reality, she became aware of him again, of everything going on around them and their little August. "Our son..." his voice was so in shock, so positively overwhelmed. Chloe would only have to look up and to her right to see him but she was too focused on the little baby laying on her chest, crying his lungs out, so much that hearing the emotion embedded in the devil’s voice would have to do for then.

He was looking at August with wonder in his eyes, witnessing how he met his mother for the very first time, how he took his first breath of air and let out a big, loud cry. All of a sudden his throat closed; his body and mind trying to process a kind of feeling he had never felt before, a kind of feeling that waswashing over him like a wave during a storm, the same way most unforgettable things happen, the same way moments often get engraved into your soul. To his mind came Linda's words, ones she said when he first found out he was going to be a father: _'The moment your child comes into earth and you take the first look at them, you instantly fall in love,'_. He never understood how right Linda had been until that very moment, the moment his eyes first came into contact with the tiny baby crying his lungs out on the love of his life's chest. He had fallen in love.

Then, he did something he wasn't expecting himself to do. He reached out with his hand, the one that had been holding onto Chloe's during the time it took her to bring little August into the world, and with that hand he carefully touched his son's back, currently covered by a towel neither of them had realized had been put there.

"Hi, little monkey," Chloe brought her fingers to softly brush over his small cheek, and Lucifer was dying to do so himself, to get to know that tiny little thing he and Chloe had made over and over again.

Chloe finally tore her eyes off her son to briefly look at the man that had given her almost everything, to look at the man that was the reason why she now had her son laying on her chest, testing out his lungs. Through his dark eyes, she could see he was just as overwhelmed as she was, just as happy as she was.

"Our little August is here," she told him with her eyes overflowing with tears, quickly looking back down at her bundle of joy as a nurse slipped a tiny, cloth hat on his tiny head. "Hi handsome, we've been dying to meet you," The little baby finally got a hold of his lungs, giving one of his loudest cries yet and bringing a wide smile to his parents' faces.

"Would you look at that!" Lucifer said, letting the tears that were rolling down his cheeks be heard through his voice. "Little guy's got his mum's temper," Were they in other circumstances and Chloe would have scolded him for making a comment of that sort, but she was just so happy she couldn't bring herself to care.

"He's here, I'm so happy," Chloe mumbled, briefly looking up to the devil before bringing her eyes back to her son, trying to learn every single little detail. "He's got so much hair," she commented, lifting the hat August was wearing just a tiny bit and letting the devil catch a glimpse of his full head of black hair.

"He does. He's so beautiful," with no control over his tears, Lucifer planted a kiss on Chloe's forehead, letting a choked laugh and smile escape his lips as he did so. He had never felt that happy, he had never felt such strong and beautiful emotions rush through him before. Long forgotten were the fear and the anxiety the birth of the babies gave him, at least for that moment in time. He hated to admit it, but God only knew that little August and his sister, who was yet to arrive, were everything he needed. "Thank you, Chloe. Thank you so much, you've made me so happy,"

"You've made me so happy, too," she looked up to him and smiled as his lips chastely met hers, both of them being so surrounded by happiness and glee that they couldn't bring themselves to care about the rest of the world. "Thank you,"

"He has your tiny button nose," he observed, looking at the face of his son and just taking him in. His eyes were closed as he was still crying, getting used to having to breathe, but he could see the rest of his face and he could swear he had never felt prouder of something in his life. Of both Chloe, his son, and the daughter that still had to arrive. "And your pouty lips,"

"He's so beautiful, isn't he?" she was so in love, so mesmerized by the tiny little angel lying on her chest.

"Her blood pressure is stable," that comment made Lucifer's eyes go to its source, finding Chloe's doctor looking at them with a bright smile on his lips, letting them know he loved his job. "Dad, want to cut the cord?" Only then did Lucifer realize that the umbilical cord that had nurtured August for nine long months was still untouched, letting mother and son still share their blood.

"What? No, won't that hurt them?" He said, completely against the idea of letting harm come to either his son or Chloe.

"No. Neither of them feel anything when the cord is cut, I can assure you," the doctor swiftly took a hold of the cord and put two clamps on it, separating them about an inch and a half. "You have to cut in between the clamps,"

Lucifer warily grabbed the scissors he had been offered, bringing them to the white-ish looking cord, unconsciously pulling a face of disgust as he closed the scissors in between the clamps, finally separating mother and son. 

"I think... Uh," Chloe sighed, realizing that it wasn't over and she still had one more bundle of joy to bring into this world. "I'm having contractions again,"

"That's good," Doctor Carter said, smiling softly. The midwife that had first checked Chloe and told her she was ready to deliver stood beside her, putting her hands on her son and accommodating him to lift him up.

"What? No, no. You can't take him away," Lucifer was quick to say once he understood what the midwife's intentions were, looking dangerous. He didn't know what it was but he felt it blooming within him, the instinct, the need to protect what was his.

"We have to. Otherwise, Chloe won't be able to push again," the midwife argued softly, understanding more or less what Lucifer was feeling. Every once in a while they'd get a parent that didn't want their baby to be taken away.

"Baby, they have to weigh him and measure him, it's okay," Chloe said as she placed a tiny little kiss on her son's head, willing to give him to the nurses so they could take all his stats. "We'll have him back with us in no time," she felt uncomfortable as the new contraction took a hold of her body. It was mild compared to what she had been feeling before, but something in her told her it wouldn't stay that way for much longer.

"I..." Lucifer hesitated, not wanting any harm to come his son's way but wanting to stay by Chloe's side at the same time.

"What do you say we go get you your sister, huh?" Chloe said to August with a softness in her voice Lucifer had never heard before, handing him off to the midwife not before leaving a kiss on his forehead. "It's okay, he'll be alright,"

"He'll be right over there, I'm sure you'll hear all the cries this little one has to give," the midwife said softly, cradling the newborn to her chest and smiling before leaving to one of the neonatal stations installed inside the room.

With that, Lucifer settled, feeling a little bit calmer. He could already feel how unsettling it was hearing his baby cry and being unable to do anything about it, and he had known him for about five minutes, it couldn't have been more than that. 

"Let's go get our daughter, okay?" Chloe told him, and with a small nod, Lucifer sat back down in his chair, holding onto Chloe's hand as the contractions started to come back stronger and more frequently.

It wasn't long before Chloe's body got back into the rhythm of active labor, letting her get contraction after contraction and letting her experience all the pain over again. She wasn't pleased with that, but she would be getting another baby girl out of it, so she couldn't complain.

"Okay, Chloe, your blood pressure is slightly high now, so we have to do this quickly or we’ll be at risk of you having a seizure. You understand that, right?" Chloe nodded, fearing she would just start seizing mid delivery. She really didn't want that to happen, she wanted her baby girl to arrive healthily, just as her brother had done. "Whenever you feel the next contraction, I want you to push with all the strength you have, alright?"

"Okay," she mumbled and nodded as she felt the familiar tightening prior to the pain that contractions entailed.

When the contraction hit her, she did just as the doctor told her to do. She bore down and pushed with everything she had in her, even harder than when she delivered August, wanting to meet her baby girl as soon as possible. She was far more alert this time, aware of the doctor talking and counting to ten to help her push, aware of the cries of her son coming from the other side of the room, aware of Lucifer stroking her hair and whispering words of encouragement to her ear. She was also aware of the ringing she could hear and the increasing headache she was starting to feel.

“That’s perfect, Chloe, keep going,” she heard from the doctor, and after a short break she resumed her pushing again, holding onto Lucifer’s hand like a lifeline. “I can feel her head going towards the birth canal, you’re doing great,”

“We’re going to meet Claire soon, muffin. Keep going,” Lucifer whispered to her ear, stroking her hair lovingly as she pushed with all the strength she had. Lucifer didn’t even have time to freak out about all the implications of the things happening around them, he just had to endure it and do right by those he cared about.

“Stop pushing,” the order came all of a sudden and too sternly, startling Chloe.

“What is it?” She said out of breath. It wasn’t normal for doctors to ask that of her, even more so if he’d told her they didn’t have much time. “What’s happening?”

“Baby is OP, I need help here. Bring an ultrasound,” the nurses that weren’t taking care of little August rushed over to the doctor, following his orders to a tee.

“What is going on?” Lucifer asked, quitting his position with his head by Chloe’s side and sitting upright, still holding her hand. “What’s happening to my daughter,”

“The baby is in occiput posterior position,” the doctor explains, bringing the ultrasound wand to the lower part of Chloe’s stomach to verify his initial diagnosis.

“What does that even mean?” the devil questions, getting a little too defensive and scared of the prospect of something being wrong with his baby girl.

“Is she okay?” Chloe asked through a grunt, fighting her primal instinct to push her daughter out in favor of enduring the contractions.

“It means she’s sunny side up. She’s facing the ceiling instead of the floor,” the doctor took a seat back on his chair, having confirmed through ultrasound imaging that his diagnosis had been right.

“Why is that a problem? Is that a problem?” Lucifer asked, being he the one to hold onto Chloe’s hand as well.

“In a normal delivery it wouldn’t be a problem, Chloe would just have to push for longer and it’d be a little more difficult to get her out,” he explained, going back to checking on little Claire’s position. “Chloe has preeclampsia, we can’t have her pushing for much longer. I’m going to have to turn her, okay?”

“What? What are you going to do to her?” Lucifer questioned, getting overprotective of his girls, afraid something would go wrong.

“I’m going to gently push her back in and turn her so she’s facing the floor. It’s that or a c-section, we don’t have time,” the doctor didn’t wait for approval, he just got to working. “Okay, Chloe, this might feel a little uncomfortable but you have to pull through. If this doesn’t work we have to go to the OR,” he explained to her, getting a couple of nods from the poor woman fighting her urge to push. Needless to say, turning the baby _had_ to work or they would have to hope August was the only baby that carried whatever it was that made Chloe indestructible. Otherwise, there would be casualties. “I need constant updates on the blood pressure,” he called out. “Okay, Chloe, here we go,”

With a hand on her belly and the other one down by her private parts, the doctor did what he had to do. Chloe wanted to cry out of pain from the contraction she was going through and the pressure of having such a procedure done without anesthesia, but just picturing her baby girl in her head made her pull through it, shedding a few tears from how terrible it was.

“BP is at one-ninety-four over one-thirty-three,” a nurse said, following the orders the doctor had put out.

Chloe was starting to feel slightly lightheaded, like things and sensations were taking a bit longer to be processed. It wasn’t quite like feeling her body giving out, but more like when sometimes you get up too quickly and you feel like you’re about to faint.

“It’s okay, we’ll be okay,” Lucifer said, going back to petting her hair and trying not to look at what was going on.

It was all too much. The cries of her son could be heard from the other side of the room, the doctor had such a great tension on his face it was obvious something was wrong, she wasn’t feeling like herself and she was in pain. She wanted it to end. She wanted her baby girl to be born and to be able to hold her close to her chest, to not be in such pain anymore, to not be worried about her safety anymore. She wanted to be able to push, to relieve the pressure building up inside her, she wanted to just give in to what her body told her it needed.

“Please...” she pleaded to no one in particular, and to everyone who could hear at the very same time.

She pleaded to the doctor, asking him to be able to do what was needed to do for the sake of her daughter. She pleaded to Lucifer so he wouldn’t stop being there for her in a time where things were so uncertain and everything was hurting, so he would be the one to keep everything together while she was vulnerable and falling apart. She pleaded to the nurses currently taking care of her son so that they would keep him safe while his sister tried to arrive.

She pleaded to God.

She asked him that He kept them safe, that He helped them bring their baby girl into the world safely, that He helped His granddaughter and kept her safe while every human in the room did everything they could. She asked that of Him, she prayed to Him. She asked Him to not be so selfish, to not let any of their lives be in vain, to let His son have the happiness and the life he deserved to have after all the millennia of torture he had to endure. She asked Him to do what she would do for all three of her children in a heartbeat: everything that was humanly possible.

“Bring the ultrasound!” The doctor asked, pulling his hands away and observing the screen while Chloe cried and Lucifer whispered words of encouragement, which had slowly but surely also turned into a prayer. “Is she...? I can’t quite see,” he brought his hand to Chloe’s private parts once again, trying to check if what his experience and his fingers could tell him was the same the ultrasound machine was telling. She couldn’t bring herself to care about the excruciating pain she was in at that moment, all she needed to hear was that her little girl was ready to get out because she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to hold on. “She’s face down! Come on, Chloe, give me a big push!”

And like a breath of fresh air, being able to do what her body had been urging her to do for those last couple of minutes had been the best thing to ever happen to her.

“Blood pressure is rising, two hundred over one-fifty-one,”

But she kept pushing.

She brought herself to that same state she had been on while delivering August, a state that only allowed her to connect with her body and her baby’s, letting instinct be the one to rule over them until it was all over. She allowed her body to be the one making the choices for her, leaving her as a bystander watching everything happen almost as if it were from the outside, like an out of body experience.

She felt every single little thing once again. Every single tear, every single movement, she felt how her daughter slid down further and further down the birth canal, how her head started poking into the world.

“BP is at two-twenty-seven over one-seventy, it’s too high!”

And there came the moment where she just couldn’t think anymore. She count hear, she couldn’t see, everything she could do was feel. She felt the tiny body of her daughter slowly leave hers, as if the tiny little thing just wanted to stay inside, all curled up and warm. She felt her head poke out, then her shoulders, and then the rest of her body, and that was it. Just like that, it was over, things were over.

The only thing was, though, that the last thing Chloe was able to feel was the light weight of her baby girl as she was placed down on her chest. From then on, there was nothing but darkness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a feeling you hate me a little because of the cliffhangers hahaha! I promise it’ll be worth it in the end!!
> 
> So, while we wait for yours truly to start working on chapter 28, why don’t you tell me a little about yourselves?? How old are my readers? I’m curious to know. I just turned 19, as some of you already know!
> 
> Remember to follow me on Instagram @crime_solvingdevil !!!
> 
> Take care, I love you all so much!
> 
> P.S.S. One of you guys asked me about the whole Ansel thing! I’m sorry I didn’t get around replying but I did read your comment! And what I’m saying about all of that is... you shall wait, my dears. Wait and you’ll see!


	28. Chapter XXVIII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Chapter 28 is finally here!! I’m so sorry I made you wait but I had a hard time finishing this, having to write in little pieces hahaha!
> 
> I was thinking, since I’m doing a face reveal on my IG (@crime_solvingdevil), I might as well do an Instagram Live and answer some of you guys’ questions about all of this! Kind of like that thing I wanted to do with the Zoom call but answering questions though the live’s chat. What do you think? Would you participate? Let me know.
> 
> Remember I’m always available either through here or Instagram, so if you want to talk to me you have no excuse haha! No, but seriously, I’m here. If you’re having a hard time and feel like you need to vent, I’m always available! I love you all so much and I want to do more for you!
> 
> Without further adieu, I’ll leave you to Chapter 28! Remember to let me know what you think about the Instagram live down by the comments!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

The birth of the devil's daughter had gone by like in slow motion to him.

He had seen and understood everything, he had seen Chloe go downhill fast ever since she started pushing again, and he had seen the love of his life pass out just as his baby girl was placed on her chest. He had seen how she had slipped back into that state she had been in while delivering August, a state that no external stimuli would make her react, a state where she was one with her body and everything else didn't matter. He then saw how she became less and less aware, as if she had somehow detached herself from her mind, and her senses just couldn't work anymore. She'd been distant, like she couldn't look, like she couldn't hear.

And then the moment came when Claire was out, and Chloe just passed out on them. Lucifer had never been more scared and relieved at the same time. On one side, his daughter seemed to be alright and finally earthside, and on the other, Chloe was no longer conscious.

Everyone around them was screaming, moving fast and trying to help the situation that had fallen upon their shoulders. Everyone wanted to take his daughter away from them, to get the love of his life away from him. He was relieved his baby girl was well and breathing, having given her first cries only seconds after being born, but he was so worried about Chloe. 

There, in the bed, lay his unconscious soon to be bride with his little baby girl on top of her chest, and he just wanted things to be over with, he wanted to have his family by his side.

"We have to get the baby away," Lucifer heard someone say, he couldn't recall who, and it was at that moment when he was finally brought back to the chaos going on in that delivery room.

His eyes made it to the umbilical cord that the doctor was about to clamp down, the link that kept mom and baby connected by blood, the link that had nurtured his daughter for nine long months. With that image in mind, understanding what having the umbilical cord intact meant, his eyes went to his baby girl's back. The little girl was crying loudly as she lay on her side, facing the devil, which didn't allow him to understand how much of a celestial being she was. However, everything happening around them called for an immediate solution, so Lucifer took an almost instantaneous decision.

"Don't cut the cord!" He yelled at the doctor, stopping him from clamping the white-ish looking cord.

"Sir, what are you saying? Someone, please, get him out of here," the doctor asked, adamant to clamp the cord and take care of the issue the way he was taught, aware of all the medication they had to get Chloe started on.

"Don't cut the cord, please," he said, going for the approach that his terrified heart told him to, being transparent about how worried and torn he actually was. He then focused his eyes on the monitor by Chloe's left side and watched. "Don't cut it, just watch,"

"Mister, she's at risk of having a seizure, we have to get moving," a nurse said, but Lucifer just remained quiet, alternating his eyes between the blood pressure monitor and the tiny baby girl crying her lungs out on top of Chloe's stomach.

"What is he..." and just as the doctor was about to scold him again, his eyes made contact with the vitals monitor and he saw how Chloe's blood pressure started to decrease on its own. "What is going on?"

"Her blood pressure is going down," a nurse said with an evident tone of disbelief, taking a look at the blood pressure strap on Chloe's arm to make sure it was taking the measurements the way it should.

"How is it...? We didn't give her anything," the doctor said again, looking at the monitor as the values decreased down to one forty over ninety six, putting Chloe on a healthy blood pressure range once again.

"What..." with a low and deep sigh, Chloe came back to her senses, awakening from her short passing out.

"Oh my god, it's a miracle," a nurse said, but Lucifer couldn't bring himself to care. His baby girl was here and Chloe was fine. They were fine, he just couldn't believe it.

"Hi..." he whispered to Chloe, going back to his sitting position and bringing his hand to pet her hair, welcoming her back. "Chloe, you scared us so much,"

"What...?" And then, with her mind a little bit groggy, she noticed the weight placed on her chest. She felt her before she heard her, and heard her before she saw her.

And just like that, there wasn't a problem to deal with anymore.

"Hi... Hi, sweetie," Chloe acknowledged the presence of her daughter, giving herself a moment to meet her just like she had done with August. "Hi... welcome, baby girl,"

A nurse tentatively approached Chloe and with the towel Claire was laying on, started drying her off, earning a loud and sharp cry from the little baby.

"She's okay? Is she okay?" Chloe asked, looking up at the medical professionals who were all staring at the situation in awe. Never, in all the years they had been working, had they witnessed something of the sort. Chloe had just come back to herself as if her passing out hadn't happened, as if her blood pressure hadn't been up to almost two thirty over one ninety just a couple of seconds ago.

"She looks perfect," said the nurse, looking at the couple and at the little baby with an expression of awe written all over her face. "It's a miracle,"

"Her mum's a miracle," Lucifer added, and no one other than them knew how right he was when he said that.

"Hi, Claire. We've been wanting to meet you for so long," Chloe whispered, slowly bringing her baby girl up to her chest and with that, encouraging her to cry harder. "Oh, sweetie, it's okay, we're okay,"

"Hello, my little urchin," he greeted his daughter, softly caressing one of her cheeks as she kept on crying loudly, being cradled lovingly in Chloe's embrace. "She's perfect, Chloe, you did so good,"

"How... what happened?" She asked them, briefly looking up to Lucifer before glueing her eyes on her perfect baby girl, not wanting to miss a thing.

"I've never seen something like this happen before," they heard the doctor say, and suddenly they were aware of all the people surrounding them and staring at the scene in the purest expression of awe.

"You passed out," Lucifer explained to her, placing his hand on his baby girl's back as he fought his impulses to bring them closer to his chest, understanding that Chloe might still be in pain.

"Your blood pressure was so high I was sure you were going to have a seizure," the doctor explained, allowing himself to let out a sigh of relief. Everything happening around them was a one of a kind thing, but he just had to be thankful. "Then we placed the baby on your chest and your blood pressure went back down on its own,"

At the doctor's astonishment, Chloe only smiled, looking down at her youngest daughter and feeling complete. She was her little guardian angel, or well, half guardian angel. She had kept her mom safe, she couldn't be more thankful for that.

"Thank you," she with her mouth against her baby girl's head, understanding what had happened and letting herself be drowned in all the emotions meeting her baby entailed. "Our little bright star,"

"Indeed," Lucifer said; smiling so hard and with tears of happiness and relief rolling down his cheeks, staring at his beautiful baby girl's face. "You've earned my respect, little urchin," he brought one of his fingers close to one of her tiny fists; her hands being so tiny it managed to amaze him. He really wasn't expecting what happened next.

"You like your daddy, little princess?" Chloe asked with her voice as soft as cotton, watching the astonishment paint Lucifer's face as Claire opened her fist and wrapped her tiny little hand around her father's finger. "He's really nice, huh?"

"What is she...?" Lucifer managed to ask, marveled by the fact that his tiny little star was holding onto his finger.

"It's a reflex," the doctor explained, bringing the cord clamps and a pair of scissors to cut the umbilical cord himself, finally separating mother and daughter. "They grab onto anything that touches their hands,"

"I hope you don't get too habituated to doing that, I'm going to want my finger back," he told his daughter, softening his voice unconsciously as the little girl cried with less intensity as time went by. "She's perfect, isn't she?"

"So beautiful," Chloe looked up at him, and much like when August was born, Lucifer gave her a kiss filled with all the nicest emotions in the world, speaking with his lips something he'd never be able to put into words.

"She's got so much hair," Chloe said as she softly touched her daughter's head; thick and dark hair being coated by the fluids that had kept her warm and safe for nine months. "Just like your brother,"

"They look so alike," Lucifer said, marveled that his daughter was still holding on to his finger and mesmerized by the sight of her. They were both so precious, they couldn't wait to have them together again. "I'm so happy. Thank you, Chloe. Thank you so much," he planted a long kiss on her forehead, having given up on trying to prevent his tears from falling too long ago. 

"You have nothing to thank me for, silly. I'm just as happy as you are, if not more," she said as she lightly caressed her daughter's head, being careful of her soft spots and just enjoying the feeling of having her earthside and healthy. 

"This is the happiest I've ever been in my entire life, and you know how much that actually means," and of course, Chloe did. Hearing someone who had been alive since time wasn't even a thing say that that specific moment was the happiest he had ever been was so mind blowing. Her heart bursted out of joy, feeling delighted to have her family complete once and for all.

"Sorry to bug you, but do you want to do skin to skin with them?" A nurse came their way, popping their bubble. They could still hear August crying in the background as his twin sister got her one on one time with their mom. 

"Yes, that would be lovely," Chloe said, getting ready to have her daughter taken away to the neonatal station to get her measurements and make sure she was healthy. 

"That's perfect. We'll bring you your babies in no time. Sorry that it's taking us longer to get the measurements on your baby boy but we needed more hands at the delivery," the nurse swiftly picked Claire up from Chloe's chest, making a loud and angry cry erupt from the baby as she was taken away.

"That's okay, we're all good now," Chloe smiles softly at the nurse, watching as she took her little girl away and hearing how Claire was obviously not happy about it. "We did it," she turned to face the devil, not caring about the tears that were coating her eyes, nor the ones coating her loved one's.

"No, Chloe. You did this," Lucifer brought both oh his hands to hold onto her right one as he leaned over and kissed her forehead; the cries of their children filling up the room. "No one has ever made me as happy as you have,"

"I love you," she said at a loss for words, feeling those three little words weren't enough to convey everything Lucifer meant to her.

"They're here, I... I can't believe I just saw you do that," he pressed his forehead against hers, thankful that the medical team were doing their jobs without bugging them too much, letting them enjoy their moment. "I never really thought the antichrist would ever be a thing, but we have two of those now," Chloe laughed a little, feeling uncomfortable and regretting it almost instantly when a postpartum contraction started making her feel in pain. It was nowhere near as hard or painful as active labor contractions were, but it was uncomfortable nonetheless.

"We do..." she sighed, feeling calm and just complete with her devil and her babies earthside. "And they have a strong temper, too," Lucifer cracked a smile, looking over to where his children were being measured and hearing them cry their little lungs out.

"That's on you," he teased her, taking a moment to rejoice on the fact that everything was alright, and that everyone he loved was safe. "They're beautiful, and I hope they turn out to be mini-you's but with my hair,"

"Yeah, they definitely have your hair," she brought emphasis to her point by lovingly running her fingers through the devil's soft, dark hair; their heads turned to the left to watch the neonatal stations where their children were being measured. They were so little but had such strong personalities, if their cries told them anything. They definitely didn't like being away from each other and from their mom. "They are so perfect, I... I can't believe we made them,"

"And on the first try, quite literally," Chloe was certainly glad her Lucifer was back to his normal self, not as worried and fidgety as before. "What can I say, the devil always hits the nail on the head,"

"I apologize to everyone in here for the things he might have said while I was bringing two lives into the world," she said, wanting to laugh about it but trying not to. She knew the soreness would only get worse.

"He was pretty well behaved, I assure you. He only told us not to cut you daughter's cord while you were out but that actually seemed to help things, so... I really can't complain," the doctor spoke up from his place, still in between Chloe's legs. "Chloe, would you mind doing a little bit of pushing when you feel the next contraction? Just so we can get the last placenta out safely," Chloe nodded and did as she was told, having failed to notice the delivery of the first placenta altogether. The second one came easily after that, leaving Chloe all settled. "This is by far the most flawless twin delivery I've ever done, I mean... Two full term babies, not a single tear, both placentas came out practically on their own," the doctor praised them, getting rid of his gloves and disposable scrubs. "If it weren’t for the blood pressure issue this would've been a delivery for the books. You have to tell us your secret," Doctor Carter teased them, standing up and getting rid of all the once sterile equipment he had to wear to bring the devil's children into the world. If he only knew what the secret truly was...

"Well, we'd tell you but then we'd have to kill you," Chloe joked, too happy and content that she couldn't bring herself to care about the little bits of divinity the delivery had entailed. 

"Yes. Let's say my father isn't a fan of... people knowing our secret," Chloe could tell he had wanted to say 'humans'. They didn't have time to pull a face at that because two nurses came with their children in their arms, ready to give them back to their parents.

"Oh, hi," Chloe greeted them, looking all interest in the conversation she had been having with her doctor in favor of getting to know her babies.

"Pull down your gown so you can do skin to skin," said one nurse with a smile on her face and a crying baby on her arms. Chloe did so, not caring about the fact that she was completely naked underneath the hospital gown. "Well, here we have baby A, whose name is..." the nurse said as she placed the naked baby back on his mother's chest, mainly on the right side to leave space for his sister.

"August John," Lucifer said proudly, looking at his son as he was laid on his mother's chest, easing a bit the volume of his cries.

"And the last names?" That same nurse asked, helping Chloe get comfortable with the baby on top of her.

"We still have to discuss that part," she said, far too concentrated in the beautiful face of her baby boy, her little son.

"Well then, little August John weighed six pounds, thirteen ounces and measured nineteen and a half inches long. Congratulations," the nurse stepped back, allowing her workmate to place Claire on top of Chloe's chest as well, right besides her brother.

"And baby B—," Chloe could tell the male nurse was going to ask for her name, so she just said it straight away. 

"Claire Uma," She let out a sigh of relief, finally able to feel whole again now that the babies she had carried for nine months were back where they belonged.

"This beautiful girl weighed six pounds, nine ounces and is almost nineteen and a half inches long, much like her brother. Congratulations, guys," the nurse accommodated little Claire's head on top of Chloe, letting show the bow on the little cloth hat she was wearing.

"You naughty little thing. There's no doubt she's my daughter," Lucifer scooted over and covered his children's bodies with Chloe's hospital gown, covering them from the outside and hoping to keep them warm.

"What are you talking about?" Chloe asked, not finding it in herself to be mad at him or to even try to scold him. She knew that whatever his answer might be, it would be with a naughty innuendo.

"She's six pounds, nine ounces, sixty-nine, detective. I thought you knew me better," he smiled, leaning over and placing his head right besides Chloe, looking at the tiny babies on her chest like they were some sort of marvel.

"Of course you'd say that," she smiled, looking down at her little ones with all the love in the world. They were really earthside now, and they were theirs to have for who knows? All of eternity maybe? "I can't believe they're here, and they're so perfect. I can't stop saying that but I... I just love them so much," Lucifer leaned over, watching his babies squirm and whine instead of cry, finally calming down.

"I get it now," he murmured, bringing up one of his fingers to brush over Claire's left cheek, marveled by how soft and delicate her skin was. "At the beginning I... I was so afraid I'd never feel a connection with them,"

"I know," And oh boy, did Chloe know. Lucifer had had such a hard time coming around the idea of his children and actually looking forward to having them without letting fear overpower him. She couldn't be prouder of him.

"Now I... I'd do anything for them, for you. Anything," he was so astounded by the feeling, something so great neither his mind nor heart could comprehend, but he was so glad he could feel it. He would never be able to put it into words, he would never be able to narrow down what was going through him in that moment in time, but he was so glad it was happening and it was so rewarding in a way. What he could say was that he felt like he had grown as a person, that the little its and bits he had apprehended from humans by being around them for so long had managed to bloom into something beautiful, and that in a way, he was a better man now. All thanks to Chloe and the two little spawns laying on her chest, squirming and trying to settle down into their new environment.

"I know you would. I would, too. In a heartbeat," she savored the brief and chaste peck the devil left on her lips, trying to discern all the emotions and feelings transmitted through it before going back to staring at her babies in awe. "Oh, hi there! You don't want to cry anymore?" Chloe talked to August, watching him slowly blink and try to get his eyes adjusted to the light. He couldn't really see all too well, it would take both of them a couple of days for that to happen, but it was so beautiful finally getting to see his newborn-grey eyes.

"He's got his eyes open?" Lucifer couldn't really see his face because August was with his back to him, so he took advantage of the fact that Chloe's legs had been lowered back down to the bed to take a seat on it, wanting to see both of his spawns' faces. "Hello, little guy," he greeted him, offering him his finger and watching in awe how he did the exact same thing Claire did, closing his little fist tightly around it. "You have such nice eyes,"

"They'll probably change, though," August had the typical newborn grey eyes but with a hint of blue in them, so maybe he could have inherited his mother's eyes, only time would tell.

"I hope they stay like this or turn out to be like yours," he said, looking at his son in awe. He had a son and a daughter, he couldn't wrap his head around that fact yet. 

"They could, I mean... Claire seems to have much darker eyes than he does," he focused on his daughter, who was still squirming and trying to get used to being outside of the womb, and took a look at her newly opened eyes. "Do you have your daddy's eyes, little girl?"

Looking at her more in detail, she seemed to have a lot more hair than August did, and her features just looked less like Chloe's. Her lips were still pouty and she had a tiny button nose, but even if both babies had those features, they could tell they would end up looking different as time went by. That and the fact that birth usually made newborn babies be really swollen during their first couple of days, so it made it even harder for them to tell.

"Such a gorgeous little thing," a bright smile crossed the devil's face when he saw his daughter squirm and, with the movement, a tiny dimple formed on the side of her mouth. "You just missed your brother, didn't you? You were just screaming bloody murder a couple of minutes ago and now you're just all calm," he talked to her, wanting to breathe them in and never let them go. He had never felt a love so great before in his life. "They are so tiny, they look so fragile,"

"I know, they are almost more than a pound lighter than what Trixie was," Chloe was so amazed by her body and by them. In a matter of nine months she had been able to grow and nurture those two babies to full term, having them be born with really healthy weights for having been twins.

"So much for them being big during scans, huh?" The squirming in the babies side was subsiding, letting the parents hear a whine every once in a while. 

"They are a really healthy weight for twins," she said, feeling the closest to Heaven that she'd ever feel. Well... at least up until she actually got to go to Heaven. "I'm so happy, I can't wait to have Trixie in here and for her to meet them,"

"The spawn's going to be over the moon about them," he smiled, drunk in his own feelings. 

Lucifer was so mesmerized, so unable to wrap his head around the fact that those two little things had come out from love, from the biggest act of selflessness he ever did: leaving the one he loved the most in order to protect her. They were his, and never in a million years would have he thought he'd be happy about having them, but now that he could see their little faces, feel how soft their skin was and how tightly they wrapped their fists around his finger, he was sold. He couldn't possibly image the rest of eternity without those two little munchkins, and he had known them for less than twenty minutes. He was so thankful that he'd have them until the end of time. 

"What's going through your mind?" Chloe's voice asked him softly, hinting she was finally starting to feel the havoc labor and delivery had done to her body.

"I'm just... I can't quite explain it, but I feel so... complete," he let that last word go out with a sigh, smiling so widely it hurt. "From now and until the end of time... they are ours," he was in disbelief.

"That makes me so happy," he brought his knuckles to softly graze against the softness of his son's cheek, looking surprised when the little guy followed his touch with his mouth.

"What is...? He's following my finger," he says, testing it again and smiling at how when his finger touched him on the cheek, he would turn his face towards it, as if he were searching for it. 

"Are you hungry, little boy?" Chloe lowered both of her babies to lay on her stomach, allowing them to latch on her if they wanted to. Being able to exclusively breastfeed twins would be great but it would also be setting the bar up too high. She had had trouble with breastfeeding Trixie before, having had to switch over to formula when she was only three months old. She wasn't ashamed of having had to do that in the past, but she would really like to give breastfeeding another chance nonetheless.

Little August latched on almost immediately, inducing the memories of how painful breastfeeding was at the very the beginning to his mom.

"Don't say a thing," she scolded Lucifer beforehand, having seen the intentions of making an innuendo painted on his face.

"Okay, then. I won't," he said, still smiling smugly before going back to practically drooling over his spawns.

"I can see it on your face, what are you? Twelve?" That comment in particular made them both go back in time about three years before, to the day they worked their first case together and Lucifer first realized where he knew Chloe from.

"Look how far we've come since then," he knew the moment was in both their minds, and honestly it was crazy to think everything that had happened over those last three years.

"I went from finding you repulsive to falling in love with you," she softly rubbed her twins backs up and down, rejoicing in the feeling of finally having them with her and not inside her.

"And you sort of started me into my path towards redemption. We're even now," Chloe smiled, truly amazed by how far they had come. "And now we have these two little urchins,"

"We do, and they're so perfect,"

They spent around an hour and a half just fighting the urge to fall asleep in order to stare at their babies and practically drool from how in love with them they were. Lucifer got to hold them at one point, getting his half hour of skin to skin contact with his children once they had calmed down and Chloe fed them. The little urchins didn't even notice they had been moved with the help of a nurse to lay on their father's chest, they were just very appreciative of the warmth emanating off the devil's skin. They were much like Chloe in that aspect, finding peace whenever in their daddy's arms. 

In regards to what Lucifer felt when he finally got to hold his spawns, well... it was just as indescribable as the feeling he got when he first saw them. He was reluctant at first, finding them to be so tiny and fragile and actually fearing harming them. Then, the moment came when he found himself sitting shirtless on an armchair as two nurses placed his asleep children on his toned and freckled chest, letting a huge wave of peace and bliss just wash over him, a feeling so great he doubted something would ever compare. He had his tiny urchins on his chest, the love of his life by his side, and the eldest urchin would be coming in the morning to meet her new siblings. Everything just felt right, like things had fallen into place, and if he could freeze that moment and stay like that with his two babies for the rest of eternity, he wouldn’t hesitate.

“You know... I was thinking,” Chloe’s voice was the one to break him out of his mind, having been trapped in the beauty and tranquility his children transmitted. “We still don’t know what their last names will be,”

“Muffin, I really don’t think I can think right now,” and that bit was a very big truth. He was so in love, so relaxed, so complete... he wasn’t sure he could start his train of thought and not let it derail. “Let’s talk about that in the morning, shall we?”

“Well, I’ll do all the talking, then,” the nurses and staff had left around fifteen minutes before, having cleaned everything and taken the neonatal station with them, leaving Chloe and Lucifer in the room for her to recover. “I want their last name to be Morningstar,”

“I... What? I thought...” that took Lucifer by surprise, having expected Chloe to want to have her children have her last name as well. “I thought you’d want them to have your last name,”

“Up to a certain point I did. I felt like...” she sighed, starting to feel the aftermath of labor kick in. “That if they didn’t have my last name then there’d be no more Deckers after me,”

“Darling, we really don’t have to do this right now, maybe you’ll regret it,” he said, trying not to move too much in order to not disturb the little half-angel newborns sleeping soundly on his chest.

“I know I won’t,” she was quick to say, smiling his way and trying to get used to how beautiful the sight before her was. “When I realized my dad wouldn’t be at our wedding I... I also realized that family legacy isn’t just a last name. It’s so much more than that, it’s... It’s you transmitting to your children everything you’ve been taught, and having a place in your heart for the people you’ve lost,”

“So, what you mean is that they should have my last name? Why?” Lucifer was confused to say the least. If a last name didn’t have any influence in the people Claire and August would become, then it shouldn’t matter at all. 

“Because I want to have it, too,” and, not going to lie, those seven words managed to widen the smile on the devil’s face. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why it had happened, but it had certainly just made him happier. “I want all of us to be Morningstars, I want us to be a family,”

“But darling, we already are a family. It’s just as you said, it goes beyond last names. Are you sure you really want to do this?” Chloe couldn’t possibly love him any more than she did at thatmoment in time. Lucifer was so caring, so perfect, how could people say he was the embodiment of evil?

“I’m sure,” she insisted, having reinforced her position after hearing him so concerned and preoccupied that she might regret it later. “Besides, Morningstar is far cooler than Decker,”

“Indeed,” they were just so happy. There was nothing that could possibly make them happier than that moment in time, a day they would remember for the rest of eternity. “Welcome to earth, August and Claire Morningstar, we’ve been waiting to meet you,” he said to his little spawns, placing a kiss on the top of their heads and making Chloe smile so widely that it hurt.

“You truly have no idea how good you look with two babies sleeping on your chest,” she commented, appreciating the beauty of the image before her. It wasn’t in a sexual way, not at all, but she just found it so endearing and rewarding seeing him like this, having seen his transition, how he evolved. He had gone from a complete and utter aversion towards children to being sat in an armchair with two newborns sleeping on his chest. It had been just wonderful to see.

“I’d go look in a mirror but I don’t want to move,” he was still as a rock, letting the babies lay on him as if he were a mattress. “I don’t know how to move them,”

“Are you uncomfortable?” Chloe asked, not having realized that maybe the position the devil was in at that moment wasn’t the most comfortable one. It sure was to their little ones, but his back was arching in ways that it shouldn’t.

“I’d like to go to the bathroom, if possible,” Chloe propped herself up on the bed, sitting straighter and wincing slightly before leaning over to her right side and taking Claire on her arms, placing her softly on top of her chest as the little one squirmed and whimpered.

“Oh, I know I’m not as warm and comfortable as your father is but I have food, okay? Do we have a deal?” The little girl started calming down, going back to closing her eyes and breathing evenly on her mom’s chest, not having liked being moved. “Can you stand up with just one baby in your arms?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t want to hurt him,” he said hesitantly, looking at how his son slept peacefully on top of him and not wanting to disturb him.

“It’s easy. Just put a hand on his upper back and head, the other one on his bum and stand up. Nothing will happen to him, it’s okay,” 

Lucifer placed his left hand on the back of his baby boy and the right one on his butt, cradling him close to his chest before slowly sitting up straight. He really didn’t want to harm the baby by moving too fast or holding him in a way he wasn’t supposed to. He then, slowly but surely stood up, holding the baby with all the care in the world and trying to keep him in one piece. 

“That’s okay. Now, place him on my chest, and much like the way they were sleeping before, Lucifer slowly placed August on the right side of Chloe’s chest, letting him get comfortable on top of his mom once again. “There, see? It wasn’t so difficult,”

He would have smiled or said something to Chloe’s words if only the swaddle loosely placed on August’s back hadn’t been pulled down with the movement, leaving the little boy’s back full on display for his father to see.

“What is it?” Chloe asked when she saw Lucifer’s semblance change. He wasn’t mad, or angry or anything, but she could see how his smile had gained a tint of something else.

He carefully leaned over and pulled down the swaddle blanket covering Claire’s back, gasping in surprise when he made the same discovery and found those same, two little bumps there. They were small enough that the doctors could have easily missed them, but an angel like him wouldn’t.

“Lucifer, what is it?” Chloe asked again, kind of understanding where things were going, but needing the confirmation still.

“Well... It looks like the spawns may have inherited something other than my hair,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The babies have wingies, yay!! I’ve wanted to write this chapter for sooo long, just let Chloe and Lucifer get to know their little urchins! 
> 
> Now, I have two questions for you:  
> 1) If you didn’t know I was 19, how old would you think I was?  
> 2) Since I’m doing a face reveal soon on my IG (@crime_solvingdevil), how do you imagine me to look like physically?
> 
> With that I say goodbye and I’ll be seeing you when I upload chapter 29!
> 
> Stay safe and healthy and take care!! Love you lots!!


	29. Chapter XXIX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, grab a drink because this note is going to be long af.
> 
> 1) I’m so immensely sorry that it took me so long to upload chapter 29, but besides having inspirational and personal issues, I just realized something huge: there’re only 4 parts left to this story and then that’s it, it’s over. It shook me quite a lot to think of how quickly this went by, and I want y’all to know how grateful I am to have you!
> 
> 2) Holy fucking shit you guys we’re getting season 5, omg. Ever since June 22nd I’ve been in a constant freaking out session over Lucifer and all the content we’re getting. Follow me on Instagram @crime_solvingdevil to get some updates on all that stuff, but for if you don’t have Instagram, let me resume it for you:
> 
> a) We’re fucking getting Season 5 part one on August 21st 2020 and I’m not kidding y’all, I think deckerstar will finally do the nasty. Hell will freeze over you guys!  
> b) Season 5 part two is scheduled to go back into production in mid October, so maybe around January or February 2021 we’ll be getting part two!  
> c) We fucking did it! The lucifam has saved Lucifer three times as the series has been renewed for a sixth and final FINAL season! I couldn’t be any more excited!
> 
> 3) And I’ve left the bestest news till the end hahaha. I’m so excited and pleased to tell you that I now have a beta-reader! She is @MaraschinoSqueeze here on AO3 (sorry Katie darling, idk how to actually link things over here) and I can’t even begin to tell how amazing this human being is! Literally the sweetest! However, while these are great, awesome, marvelous news, it also means that chapters might take longer to upload because she has to go over them and correct them, and then I have to go over them again to make sure they’re perfect and ready to be published! Katie will also be polishing the other 28 chapters and I’ll be updating them as she makes her corrections, but know that nothing substantial of this fanfiction will be changed!
> 
> 4) I’ll be going live on IG (@crime_solvingdevil) to answer some of your questions regarding this fic, future projects or anything really. It’ll be on Sunday, July 5th at 6pm PST! Hopefully it doesn’t interfere with dinner hahah!
> 
> Now yes, without further adieu, I’ll leave you to the long awaited SGTDE’s chapter 29! Hope you’ll like it!!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Sleep? What was that?

Chloe and Lucifer had managed to sleep for around two hours in total, feeling too in love with their newborn angels to care about sleep deprivation. They dozed off a couple times in between feeding and staring at their children as if they’d hung up the moon, and they really didn’t care that they hadn’t slept because they were far too interested in getting to know their little winged-angels. The twins were only a couple of hours old, but they could already feel how time slipped through their fingers, so they had to take them in as much as humanly (and celestially) possible. 

They inspected the little bumps on the newborns’ backs, looking at them and touching them with the utmost care because Lucifer knew they could be very sensitive. The skin wasn’t broken because their wings had never been out in the open yet. When they did come out, the skin would just heal back up again. They were so excited to see how beautiful their wings were, and to see if they were anything like Lucifer’s. 

Chloe, surprisingly, didn’t feel as sore or as miserable as she felt after the epidural had worn off when she had Trixie. Her body seemed to be going back to being her own with more ease, possibly because of the celestial blood still running through her bloodstream, or maybe just because it was her second pregnancy. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was, but she couldn’t really complain. She was bleeding pretty heavily and her breasts hurt like never before, but at least she could get herself out of bed and go to the bathroom. Chloe was pleasantly surprised that after only ten hours postpartum, she was already able to walk, in stark comparison to the awful experience last time. In regards to what she looked like, well... she still looked pregnant, but her belly was deflating much more rapidly than in her last pregnancy. Overall, the twins’ birth had been a much more pleasant experience. 

It was noon now, and they were running on two hours of sleep and a lot of oxytocin flooding their veins. Their bodies were slowly adapting to biologically satiate the needs of their children, be it as a food source or as a warmth and comfort source. They were so happy, though. Tired, so tired, but they couldn’t complain. 

“Lucifer, you have to learn how to change a diaper.” 

The issue at the moment was that August had taken the first crap of his life and  _ someone _ needed to change his diaper and clothes. Chloe insisted that Lucifer needed to learn. They would be changing diapers for at least two years, so he might as well get started. 

“Trixie and Dan will be here any minute now, and he has a diaper full of poop! You have to change him,” Chloe insisted, to which Lucifer only pulled a face of disgust. 

“But why can’t you do it? You’re much more experienced in this area,” he whined, placing their son on the bed his mom was laying on and trying not to gag at the idea. 

“Because we’re going to be changing thirty plus diapers a day for the next couple of months and you have to learn how to wipe a butt other than yours.” Lucifer’s face was a permanent mask of disgust. He felt half nauseated and half scared that he might hurt his little boy. He  _ had _ been the one to put on Claire’s first diaper. While that was nowhere near what changing a dirty one would be, it was still something. Nevertheless, Chloe still wanted to get Lucifer started on diaper changing duty as soon as possible. “Besides, I’m kinda busy here,” she looked down to her daughter, who was feeding from her and looking up with her round and dark eyes, though probably not able to see much. “You can’t possibly be any cuter,” she told her, slowly stroking her cheek with her thumb. 

“Yes, well. It seems we’re on our own, little guy,” Lucifer told August, undoing the buttons on his onesie one-by-one and very carefully, still impressed by how tiny and fragile his children seemed to be. They could easily be stronger than any human who ever set foot on earth, but they still seemed so… breakable. 

Lucifer lifted his baby boy’s legs with the utmost care and then undid his diaper, making an immediate face of revulsion when he faced August’s production. 

“I’m sorry, darling, but this is the first one of many. Just don’t be too harsh, okay?” Chloe said to him with a smug smile, noticing how averse he was by the prospect of changing a diaper. 

He swiftly grabbed some baby wipes and did what he had to do, torn between taking care of his son gently, and practically grabbing him with tweezers at the same time. Just the thought that this was the first diaper of a countless number of them managed to both ease his mind and make him nauseated. At least it didn't have any smell, so that counted for something. August screamed during the whole diaper change, and the only reason Claire hadn’t begun screaming as well was because she was eating, so that gave Lucifer and Chloe an idea of what August’s future diaper changes would be like. He definitely didn’t like being changed, substantiated by the fact that when Lucifer held him and cradled him close to his chest after it was over, the little urchin calmed down immediately. 

“That wasn’t so bad, was it?” Chloe asked him with a smile on her face, her eyes quickly going back to staring at her new baby girl.

“Could’ve been worse,” Lucifer said, cradling little August as close as celestially possible to his chest and pacing around the room. The little guy had already eaten and he seemed to be getting sleepy, which was only logical after all the crying he’d done. 

“Oh, believe me, it will get worse,” Chloe laughed at the face the devil pulled. She couldn’t believe her luck. She couldn’t believe that the two little half-angel beings with wings were a part of her life now. She couldn’t understand how her love for her children could grow so exponentially. “Just wait until they start eating solid food and you’ll see.”

“When will that be, again?” Lucifer asked, not bothering to lift his gaze from the chubby face of his little baby boy. He felt better than he ever had before, better than he ever had in Heaven. Saying he was in Heaven wouldn’t accurately convey the happiness and gratitude he felt while holding either of his children.

“When they get to around six months old. We still have time,” Chloe softly grazed her little one’s cheek, feeling how she started eating slower and less eagerly.

“I don’t know why but I get the feeling that this stage just… flies by.” Looking at his son’s face as the little thing blinked slowly, seconds from falling asleep in the comforting cradle of his daddy’s arms, was making him wish Amenadiel would stop time and let him enjoy the moment for just a little bit longer. 

“It does. They’re so precious at this stage and then you just blink and they’re already crawling.” Little Claire unlatched from her mom, making it clear she had a full belly and was as comfortable as could be. Still tucked into Chloe’s arms, she stared up at the ceiling with her big, round, dark eyes. “I wish they stayed this tiny for just a little while longer.”

“I can’t believe we made these,” Lucifer said as he walked towards the armchair and sat down, positioning his son comfortably on his bare chest and letting him be embraced by the heat his body emanated. “We quite literally made these.”

“I know. It’s mind-blowing to think that a day ago, I didn’t even think they’d be here by now.” Their skin was so soft and they were just so fresh and gorgeous. Chloe could swear she felt the closest to Heaven she’d ever felt during these little moments. “I mean… how did I even manage to breathe with these two inside me?”

“If there’s something I have to give my dad credit for, it’s the human reproductive system. Minus the pain of labor, I think it’s flawless.” Chloe smiled softly as she moved Claire with the utmost care, placing her on her chest and letting her head lay on her left shoulder as she burped her softly, helping the tiny newborn get the air bubbles out and hoping neither of them would get colic later on. 

“I’d go through the pain of it and even more if it meant I’d get my children at the end,” and she was so sure about that. She’d do it for all three of them. She loved them so much; words couldn’t explain even a fraction of what she felt. 

“I’ve never gone through labor before, but I've died at least twice over these last few years. Let me tell you, it is just as awful as it sounds, and yet... I’d die for them a hundred times in a heartbeat,” he smiled more widely than ever before, unable to believe that these little angels were his children and that he was so over the moon to have them. “I just… I can’t explain it and I strangely don’t care that I can’t.”

“Welcome to the world of parenthood, sweetheart.” They were having such a blissful and peaceful moment, getting to know about all the little things that made their children the beings that they were. 

For instance, they had learned that if one baby cried, the other one would immediately follow. The only exception being if said baby was feeding. They could be pretty big drama queens as well, crying loudly and angrily over practically everything. Case in point, diaper changes. They were also very much aware of each other’s presence, having shared Chloe’s womb for over nine months, so it was only logical that the few hours they actually slept they did it together. They seemed to find peace whenever they were near each other. It was a kind of connection Chloe would never understand, but that Lucifer had once felt himself, even though it was now broken. They slept for the longest while on Lucifer’s bare chest, Claire with an arm thrown over her brother’s back as if she could protect him from any harm that came his way. Out of the two of them, she seemed to be the one that would have the strongest temper while growing up. While August wasn’t too far behind in that regard, if he was near his sister or in either one of his parents’ arms, he was just fine. 

Things weren’t exactly peaceful if one stood outside the room and watched them through the window, but the wholeness and love the adults felt growing inside their chests managed to dull out any bad emotions that attempted to come their way. They were just so happy they couldn’t bring themselves to care if their babies had a temper so strong they would cry at the top of their lungs for the smallest of things. Knowing they were the only ones that knew how to calm them was enough. 

For once, however, there  _ was _ calm inside the room. Neither one of the babies were crying and neither Lucifer nor Chloe were talking, so for the first time, there was an interval of silence without it meaning everyone was asleep. It felt tranquil. The pats Chloe was giving to Claire’s tiny back and the soft humming coming from Lucifer were all the noise inside the hospital room. Falling asleep was tempting, but staring at their beautiful angels proved a greater temptation. 

It was in that reposeful moment, as Chloe gently pat Claire’s back to burp her, her hand came too close to the spot where Claire’s wings were folded beneath her skin. Chloe had no way of knowing, the only warning she got was a few of whimpers before she suddenly had a face full of downy wing. 

She was confused, to say the least, and her nose hurt because of the speed of it all. She didn’t understand what was happening. She didn’t understand what went wrong. 

“Holy...” she gasped at the sight, finally able to focus on the perpetrator of her pain. “Oh my God,” and she didn’t even try to censure herself for Lucifer’s sake. 

In her arms, laying vertically on her chest, was her ten-hour-old baby girl with a pair of angel wings sticking out of her back. There were feathers all over the detective, as her daughter cried in pain. She thought she heard Lucifer gasp in the background, but she was too shocked to register it. 

“You have to be kidding me,” said the devil’s voice as he stood up and walked towards the bed, looking at the situation with wide and round eyes. 

The little girl in question had a pair of beautiful wings coming out of her back. They weren’t nearly as large as Lucifer expected them to be, but they were easily the prettiest angel wings the devil had ever seen. They had taken his breath away, rendering him absolutely speechless. 

They were pretty much a replica of his own wings, but on a much smaller scale: white feathers organized in the very same way and shining dimly with heavenly light. However, unlike the devil’s wings, his daughter’s had hair-thin, golden fibers mixed in with all the normal feathers, contributing beautifully to the heavenly light coming off of them. They were so gorgeous he couldn’t possibly take his eyes off of them, and yet she was crying so loudly that every instinct wired inside his body was screaming at him, urging him to do something. 

“Lucifer, oh my God,” she exclaimed again, too overwhelmed by everything going on. She had her baby girl in her arms, who was crying so loudly it made both her ears and her breasts hurt, and she had an at least two foot long wing draped over her while the other one was laying on the side of the bed. Talk about a shock she didn’t see coming. 

“She’s crying so loudly, what do we do?” he asked with evident concern, placing a fast asleep baby boy inside one of the cribs and rushing over to his daughter’s aid. 

“Uh, I... I was kinda hoping you’d be the one to answer that,” she said, absolutely mesmerized and terrified at the same time. While her daughter’s wings were undoubtedly beautiful, the only things going through her mind were finding a way of making her daughter’s discomfort stop, and worrying about how on Earth they would keep the secret of divinity if they had two babies that could sprout their wings at any given moment. 

She placed the hand that was patting Claire’s back right smack in the middle of it, lowering her down to place her in her lap and hoping she’d be able to think a bit better without a newborn screaming in her ear. 

“Oh, hush, sweetie, it’s okay. I’m sure daddy knows a way to make all of this stop,” she spoke to her daughter, grateful but amazed by the fact that the baby boy sleeping in his crib right by the side of her bed hadn’t woken up. “You do, right?”

“Uh...” the devil hesitated. 

And right when they were about to hit the peak of their freaking out session, the door to the hospital room opened and the most excited little girl rushed through it, finding her mom and her step-devil about to freak out for real. 

“Oh my God! Daddy, look, the babies have wings!” And in addition to dealing with a celestial newborn sprouting her wings out at noon, an overexcited ten year old came in, not shy at all about demonstrating how eager she was to meet her siblings. “They are so beautiful! Which one is it?” She approached the bed at an alarming speed and went to reach out and touch one of Claire’s wings, but Lucifer could have interpreted her intentions from a mile away. 

“Don’t touch that!” He quickly got his hand in the way and stopped Trixie from touching the seemingly soft feathers of her sister’s right wing. He knew how painful getting a fresh pair of wings could be, and he also knew how sensitive they felt. 

“What? Why? You let me touch yours,” Trixie argued, her dark eyes never losing the excitement and the eagerness the ten-year-old held within her body. Lucifer seriously wondered how it was possible that so much energy could fit inside such a tiny body. 

“Yes, but I’m used to my wings being there, she isn’t.” Lucifer carefully picked Claire up, trying not to touch much of her feathery, golden wings, but being practically unable to. He cradled her close to his chest, trying to soothe her somehow. 

“I’m guessing this isn’t the best time. Sorry, guys,” from the doorway came Dan’s voice, and with a little bit of hesitation he entered the room, closing the door behind his back. 

“Uh... It’s okay, Dan,” Chloe talked over her daughter’s screams, her body urging her to do something about it, to help her ease her pain. 

“I’ll just... I can take Trixie back to my place and we can come back another time...”

“No, seriously. It’s okay, I missed my oldest baby girl,” Chloe reached out to Trixie, pulling her close as the not-so-little girl’s eyes fell upon the crib where her baby brother was awakening, making the softest, littlest whines. “We just need to...”

“Why is she crying so much?” Daniel asked; Trixie was too fascinated by the sight of her little brother to care about the conversation. She had wanted to see her little sister’s wings but upon Lucifer’s negation, she just desisted. 

“Getting your wings out for the very first time can be really painful, Daniel. Though I don’t quite understand why they are out. You’re meant to have conscious control over your body in order to do so.” He was bouncing up and down slowly, not sure why his body seemed to know what to do to soothe his crying daughter. 

“Maybe I came too close to them while I was burping her,” Chloe suggested, looking up at her daughter and feeling terrible about how obviously uncomfortable she was. “Is there...” and just as Chloe was about to ask if there was a way for wings to come out when faced with external stimuli, Lucifer pressed a spot on Claire’s back and her wings slowly went back into her skin, as if they were being forcefully put away.

“There we go, little girl,” he soothed. Her cries started decreasing in intensity the minute her wings were back inside their little pockets, the little girl finding enough comfort in her father’s arms to calm down. 

“What did you just...” Daniel asked in awe, looking at how the newborn baby girl went back to looking like any normal baby would, so much so that not even her onesie was broken from her wings sprouting out. 

“How did you do that? You have to teach me how to do that,” Chloe picked August up and cradled him close to her chest, all under the curious gaze of her eldest. She was amazed by how Lucifer had handled the situation. 

“There’s a spot in angels’ backs that can easily trigger wings to burst out or force them back inside,” he started rubbing his little girl’s back very softly, trying to avoid the little bumps where her wings were now. “You may have pushed a little bit too hard on it and her wings popped out.”

“Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry,” Chloe urged her fiancé to come closer to her and place her little girl on her chest, right beside her twin brother. The detective placed the softest of kisses on the top of her daughter’s head, apologizing to the newborn. 

“Well, crisis averted it seems,” Lucifer sighed in relief, finally noticing he was bare-chested and picking up his shirt to spare spawn number one and Daniel the sight. “That must have been so painful, little one,” he softly petted his daughter’s head as the little girl sought comfort from her mother, latching on to her almost immediately after Chloe offered. 

“Why isn’t her onesie broken?” Trixie asked, staring at the little bundles of joy in awe but suddenly too scared to touch them, noticing how small they actually were. They looked to be nothing like her dolls. 

“I’m not expecting you to understand this, but angel wings are something out of your realm of perception. They can go in and out without damaging your clothing, and allow you to travel through different planes of existence, dimensions, earths, etcetera,” Lucifer explained to her, going back to his armchair and staring at his soon-to-be bride and their two fresh out of the womb little ones. 

“There’s so much about all of this that I will never understand. I might just stop trying altogether,” Dan said, relieved that the new father seemed capable of handling the situation.

“I can’t say I’m all too surprised, Daniel.” Lucifer briefly tossed a smug smile his way, and went right back to staring at his little family without catching Daniel’s eye roll. 

“They’re so small,” Trixie said softly, admiring them closely but without touching them. She observed as little Claire suckled for comfort and as her little brother chilled by her side, both absolutely comfortable on their mother’s chest. 

“I know, baby. Aren’t they beautiful?” Trixie nodded very quickly in response, a layer of tears glazing over her eyes from how happy she was feeling. She just couldn’t believe they were here, and she was so excited to finally learn how it felt to be a big sister. 

“Uh, I’m going to wait outside,” came Daniel’s voice from afar, the detective looking at the scene before his eyes with glee that his friend had finally been able to rebuild a family, but with a hint of sadness that he still hadn’t been able to do so. He knew how going through bringing a child into the world felt, and he was feeling kind of sorry for himself because he so desperately longed to feel that way again. 

“No, Dan, you can stay,” Chloe refuted almost immediately, noticing how Dan looked torn, even if he was trying his best not to. 

“Seriously, Chlo, it’s okay. I’ll come back when everyone else comes. You deserve to have some privacy.” He walked towards the door, giving the little family a small smile. 

“Thank you, Daniel. I really appreciate it,” Lucifer acknowledged, giving Daniel a respectful smile since he had chosen to leave the moment to themselves. 

“Congratulations, guys,” and with that and a small nod, he left the room, leaving the ten-year-old with her mother, step-devil, and her newborn siblings. 

“They have so much hair,” came Trixie’s small voice, not taking her eyes off the little bundles of joy. She’d known them for less than five minutes and she was already so in love with their little faces. 

“I know, baby. Just like Lucifer.” Chloe softly reached out with her hand to give her eldest a sweet caress to the cheek, getting emotional from seeing Trixie get emotional. “You can touch them, it’s okay. I know you want to.”

With the utmost care, easily the most caution Chloe had ever seen Trixie put into anything, the ten-year-old brought her hand up to her little brother’s cheek, softly touching his skin with the tips of her fingers. 

“It’s so soft.” August followed his big sister’s touch with his mouth, and although it was just a reflex, it managed to draw a small giggle out of the emotional girl. 

“That’s your brother August.” Both babies were wearing plain, white onesies, so Trixie couldn’t quite identify which was which based on their clothing. She just knew the one eagerly eating from her mom was her baby sister, so the other one had to be her baby brother. 

“He has such beautiful eyes,” she commented softly, and Chloe could see that her emotions were getting the best of her because her voice was threatening to crack. 

“They’ll probably change as he gets older.” Then, Trixie did the exact same thing she did when she first met Charlie: she touched her little brother’s hand and let him wrap his little fist around her finger, smiling because of how tightly the little thing was holding on to her. “And this little drama queen over here is Claire,” Chloe introduced Claire to Trixie, the ten-year-old only able to see the baby girl’s back. “She’s definitely a mini-Lucifer.”

“I beg your pardon,” the devil interceded with a huge smile on his face, swiftly picking the ten-year-old up and setting her on his lap so she could stare at her siblings more comfortably. 

“Does she scream and complain a lot?” Trixie asked innocently, brushing her fingers over Claire’s arm as the little girl ate her sorrows away. 

“She does, yeah. They both do. August doesn’t like having his diaper changed,” Chloe told her softly, overwhelmed by how happy and complete she felt at that moment. She had all three of her children with her and the love of her life by her side, things couldn’t possibly get any better. 

“Yes, he screamed bloody murder right before you got here while I was changing him,” Lucifer added, having hated seeing his little guy cry so uncomfortably. “They have really strong personalities already.” 

“Just like mom and you do,” the not so little girl said, briefly looking up to meet the eyes of the devil. 

“Are you happy that they’re here?” Chloe asked her, taking them off the subject of personalities, and trying to give Trixie room to tell them how she felt about everything. While it could be exciting, going from being an only child to having two more siblings could also be tough. 

“Yes,” the little girl managed to choke that one word out as she stared deeply into her mother’s blue eyes, letting the coat of tears covering her chocolate ones finally overflow. She was so happy and glad she was a big sister that she just didn’t know what to do with herself. She didn’t want to cry, but she didn’t really have a way to make it stop. 

“Oh, Monkey, don’t cry! It’s a happy day, it’s their birthday,” hearing Chloe’s words only encouraged the little girl to keep on crying, being comforted by the strong arms of the devil. 

“I know! I’m just so happy!” She said, tears streaming down her cheeks like rivers of emotion. 

“Spawn, we don’t need three crying children in the house, with those two is more than enough,” Lucifer said jokingly, tickling her on the sides to try and make her smile instead of cry. She was happy, yes, but she didn’t want to cry about it, and both Lucifer and Chloe could see that. 

“You’re right,” she said mid-laugh, wiping a couple of tears off her eyes and staring at her little siblings in the purest expression of awe. She was so excited about their future as a family of five. 

“Hey, baby, do you want to hold one of them?” Chloe asked her, trying to get her to keep smiling. She was a big girl, definitely old enough to hold a newborn under supervision, even more so if said newborn was a celestial being. 

“You’ll let me?” the not so little girl asked in disbelief, staring at her brother’s little face as he blinked slowly. 

“Yeah, of course. It’ll have to be your brother though because Claire here had a real rough morning, but sure you can!” Trixie smiled up to her mom, so happy she could explode. “Lucifer, can you get her up on the bed?”

The devil swiftly stood up and placed the ten-year-old on the bed right beside her mom and her newborn siblings, allowing her to be and feel even closer to them. He then took August into his arms and placed him on his step-daughter’s lap, supporting his head with a lot of care as the little thing wiggled around and squirmed. They were so fresh and tiny. 

“You have to support his head, okay?” The devil instructed the child, carefully retrieving his hand from underneath August’s head as the little baby lay on his big sister’s arms, trying to get used to the foreignness of them. 

“He’s so tiny,” she said softly, careful not to move too much because she wanted her little brother to feel comfortable. 

“I know, baby, and Claire is even smaller.” Now that Chloe had a free hand, she used it to brush her fingers through her big girl’s head, making her smile widely. 

“Hey, little dude,” Trixie greeted her brother once the little bundle of joy stopped wriggling around. He looked up and Trixie could swear he was staring into her soul right at that moment, eyes tinted with a grayish-blue color that would most likely change as time went by. “I’m your big sister.” 

Chloe and Lucifer shared a look, a look that lasted for a brief couple of seconds but was enough for them to understand what the other was feeling. Many people say that an image is worth a thousand words, but they’ll never know how right they are because they’ll never get to see what Lucifer and Chloe were staring at right then. Trixie looked at her brother with a love and adoration so great it was dripping down her face, like nothing else mattered, like she finally had everything she could’ve ever wished for. Her eyes never lost their shine of excitement mixed with a coat of still unshed tears of happiness. Her voice never lost that spark it got whenever she talked about her siblings. Her face never lost the expression of pure glee that being right there right then was making her feel. Chloe couldn’t help that her own eyes became glossy as she stared into the devil’s chocolate pools, feeling so complete and happy it was overwhelming. She had her girls and her little boy with her, she had the love of her life by her side to experience it all together. She’d never feel alone again. 

“I will always protect you,” the ten-year-old crooned as she started rocking her brother to sleep, unconsciously moving back and forth with the baby in her arms and allowing the motion to lull him, professing a kind of unconditionality that only siblings knew of. “I will always be there for you and Claire, I will even let you play with my toys.” She was so taken by the image of her baby brother calming down and going to sleep cradled into her arms, she just couldn’t take how precious the moment actually was. “I know I can’t do all the things you guys will be able to, but I’m still your big sister. I’ll still teach you everything I know, starting with the puppy dog eyes magic.” 

“Hey!” Chloe scolded her lightheartedly, unable to cope with the cuteness and sincerity that Trixie was showing while being there with August. She was being vulnerable, and she was telling him she’d be there whenever he felt the need to be vulnerable, too. 

“With a dad like Lucifer, a big sister like me, and a mom like ours, nothing bad is ever gonna happen to you both. I promise.”

And with that, Chloe’s eldest daughter placed a kiss on her baby brother’s forehead, taking the next hour and a half to spend time with her mom, step-devil and brand new siblings, getting a glimpse of what her day-to-day life would be like from then on.

While inside the hospital room everything was as lovely and joyful as it could possibly be, the hallways were being jolted by the heavy steps of a guest not of this world. She dragged her feet over the tiled floors, letting her nose be the one to lead her towards her target, towards what they had been waiting so long for. Looking through the window of room R-117, she knew things would work out just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it and get ready because a question I’ve been seeing a lot will be answered over the next two chapters!! 
> 
> Lots of love!!


	30. Chapter XXX

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! I’m soooo tired but imma try my best to leve you a pretty note!
> 
> Chapter 30 is live!! I’m so excited and proud of this one! Katie and I honestly did both a very, very good job and I can’t wait for you guys to read it!!
> 
> This is gonna be short because I’m falling asleep on myself hahaha
> 
> I love you all sooooo much!!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

Lucifer's expectations when it came to fatherhood had been exceeded in a way he couldn't really understand. 

The twins were already a day and a half old, and in those thirty-six hours, he had experienced so many emotions. Dare he say, he had felt more during those past hours than he had ever felt during his countless eons of now meaningless existence. He truly had a hard time recalling stuff from his life before Chloe, from his life before he decided he didn't want to be what people thought he was and became his own man. He was so glad about it, about having her, and he usually wasn't one to thank his father or fawn over his miracles. Chloe, though... She was everything he had ever wanted but never knew to desire.

The twins were slowly adapting to being earthside, taking their sweet time to discover what they liked, and failing miserably at communicating their needs. They had kept their parents up for most of their first night, fussing about everything and demanding to be held. Chloe and Lucifer learned the hard way that their favorite spot for sleeping was on Lucifer's bare chest and right by each other's side. Who could blame them, though? The devil was known for being a warm spot to nap on. However, the key was having them close by. Whether they were asleep or awake, they always liked being near each other, which was something really sweet to think about.

Currently, it was around five in the afternoon and a nurse had taken Claire to the nursery so they could do her car seat test before sending the family home. The twins were born at a healthy weight for their gestational age and Chloe was healing astonishingly fast, so they had no reason to remain at the hospital for another night. The leading hypothesis was that because the twins were celestials and Chloe still had some of their blood in her, she was healing more quickly than usual. Over the past thirty-six hours, her belly had gone down significantly, and although she was bleeding as heavily as was expected postpartum, she felt good overall. She could move around and take care of her children, and, while the soreness hadn't completely worn off, she still felt far better than she had expected she would after delivering twins naturally. 

Having only one of their babies around was weird. It had happened earlier in the day when another nurse had taken August to the nursery to do his car seat test, and now again because Claire wasn't around. The good thing was that the test was the last thing they needed before they got discharged and got to go home, and with any luck, they'd be home by eight or nine pm. Hopefully, they wouldn't have to stay another night. Chloe was yearning to be around her eldest as well. She was missing her terribly. 

Trixie had only been to the hospital on the same day the twins were born, and although it had only been a bit over twenty-four hours since Chloe last saw her, she still missed her. She couldn't be blamed, though. She was emotional and hormonal, which enhanced everything she was feeling. The detective wanted Trixie to be around her siblings as much as possible, and to include her on everything they possibly could so she wouldn't feel left out. Besides, Trixie was already such a protective and overall awesome big sister to August and Claire. She had held them both at the same time once Claire had calmed down, and she had truly looked like she was in Heaven. Chloe had yet to see her happier than she was when her two newborn siblings were laying on her chest. 

However, she wasn't all too homesick right at that moment. Amenadiel, Linda and Charlie had just arrived to pay them a visit and meet the twins. 

"Oh my..." Said Linda right when she entered the room, forcing herself to keep it in when Amenadiel gave her a funny look. "Wait, weren't you supposed to have two of those?"

"Hi! Yeah, Claire is down by the nursery getting her car seat test done," Chloe explained briefly, softly patting August's back and being careful not to come too close to where his own wings were hidden. She was really curious and excited to find out what they looked like, to see if they were anything like Lucifer's or Claire's. 

"Brother!" Amenadiel made a beeline towards his little brother and quickly engulfed him in a hug, smiling softly when the devil complied and hugged him back. "Congratulations!" 

"Thank you, Amenadiel," Lucifer answered, patting his big brother's back. 

"I can't believe they're here! Charlie, look, that's your little cousin," the baby in Linda's arms was not interested in meeting his cousin. Instead, he was sucking on his fist and looking up at his mom with big, round, dark eyes. "He's so gorgeous, Chloe," Linda congratulated her, leaning over to stare at August's little face. 

"They're both like mini copies of Lucifer. I'm sure they'll end up looking just like him," Chloe said, unable to keep a smile in when she noticed that she didn't really care if both her children ended up looking like her favorite devil. 

"Don't you just hate it? You spend nine months of your life growing them, your body goes through all these awful changes, all for the baby to end up looking like their dad," Linda sat down on the armchair right by Chloe's bed, placing Charlie on her lap and bouncing her knees to keep the little guy occupied. 

"Hey!" came Amenadiel's voice, and the two brothers approached their respective significant others. 

"I like that they look like him," Chloe said with her voice full of pride and happiness, staring down at her little guy. "Claire looks even more like her dad than August does. I can't wait for you guys to meet her,"

"How are you feeling, sweetheart?" Linda asked her softly, not taking her eyes off the newborn in the room, still bouncing her own son on her knee. 

"Honestly, better than I expected," Chloe sighed, feeling so content and whole that the idea of feeling better was inconceivable. "I'm bleeding a lot and I'm an emotional wreck, but it still isn't as bad as I thought it would be," 

"Her breasts are larger. I can't complain," came Lucifer's voice from the other side of the bed, casting his therapist and the love of his life a small, smug smile. Chloe sent him a warning look, one that the devil was accustomed to receiving these days. 

"You don't even look pregnant anymore. I mean... It took me four months to get rid of that pouch and it's still not fully gone. And I only had one baby," Chloe laughed slightly, briefly feeling uncomfortable before it went away. Childbirth was a shock on the body, and she was still trying to get used to her new one. 

"We think it has to do with the fact that both Claire and August are celestial beings," Lucifer explains, standing closer to Chloe and softly caressing her shoulder. 

"Charlie is, too, and Linda still had a harder time recovering from childbirth," said Amenadiel, engaging in the conversation and taking his first look at his nephew. The little guy was chilling on his mother's chest, awake but completely unaware of everything going on around them. 

"Besides, you didn't have Auntie Remi coming over to Earth to try and cut them out of your stomach," Linda pointed out, remembering how threatened Charlie had been when he was first born and prior to that. Amenadiel gave a pained and apologetic look to the mother of his son, still harboring shame about how he had approached that situation. “Stress can have a huge impact on how you recover from things,”

"I did have Uncle Ansel trying to drain their powers when they were the size of a raspberry, though," Chloe countered, and watched Lucifer struggle with his anger, his eyes glowing red with hellfire, giving him away. Lucifer had never gotten over the fact that his own brother had threatened his two little beans. And over what, exactly? A power that was completely useless since the only weapon it could wield was no longer in this universe? "What we mean is... They have wings, guys," Chloe continued, attempting to stave off Lucifer’s anger and redirect the conversation.

"No way," said Linda, completely astonished and surprised, finding so many differences between her son and his cousins. "Both of them?"

"Are you sure, brother?" Amenadiel questioned him, having experience with Charlie. "Charlie still hasn't gotten his, maybe it's something else," 

"I got a face full of wing yesterday while I was burping Claire. The poor thing was in so much pain," Chloe started rubbing her son's back up and down, shifting from patting to a more soothing touch to help him relax. 

"That's amazing," Amenadiel said, close to being speechless. Ever since Charlie was born he'd been wondering what his wings would look like, or if he would ever get any. "How were they?"

"Just like mine but around two feet long, with golden fibers mixed through them. They are truly the most gorgeous wings I've ever seen," the Devil said, trying to bring back to his mind the beautiful sight of his baby girl's wings. If only the little thing hadn't been in so much pain. 

"And August's?" Linda asked, staring into the little guy's face as the newborn blinked slowly. 

"He hasn't got them out yet," Chloe explained, giving her son a tiny kiss on the top of his head. "I'm so curious to see what his will look like." 

"He'll get them out on his own time, darling. Claire’s coming out was sort of a mistake." Chloe couldn’t deny how much she was loving how supportive and caring Lucifer was being. She felt like, somehow, she was getting to know a completely different side of him. 

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't even ask. Do you want to hold him?" Chloe asked her visitors, but the offer was clearly more directed towards Linda. She could see how the therapist looked at her baby boy with longing in her eyes, maybe missing the times when her own baby boy was August's size.

"Can I?" Linda hesitated, looking down at Charlie.

"Sure! Here, go ahead. As of now, you have far more experience with babies than I do," Chloe sat up straighter on the bed and handed August off to Linda, not before the therapist sat her almost ten-month-old baby boy on the bed.

"Hi, little guy," Linda greeted him as Chloe grabbed Charlie and sat him on her lap, having exchanged babies all under the whipped looks of their respective significant others. "Oh my goodness, guys! He's so precious," the little boy was squirming a bit while being cradled by the unknown arms, but he eventually settled down.

"I know," said Lucifer with a smug smile painting his face, getting the usual eye-roll on his detective's side. "Have you seen us? It's only logical we make such gorgeous babies."

"I've learned that parents will always see their own children as beautiful, so you aren't being quite objective there, Luci," Lucifer gave Amenadiel an unamused smile. "However, don't worry. We're used to you being the way you are."

"How's that?" The Devil questioned him, as the eldest of all angels walked towards his partner to take a better look at his newly-born nephew. 

"You're never objective, darling," Chloe contributed while she played with the nine-month-old, trying to get a laugh or at least a little smile out of him.

"I'm going to act as if those words never left your mouth," he said, half-faking outrageousness and half-taking it personally. He didn't like to be told he was doing the wrong thing, even if it was one of those scarce occasions where the people around them would be right and he knew so.

"Lucifer, you literally do that all the time," came Linda's contribution to the conversation, making the adults in the room except for the Devil crack a laugh. 

"And she's your therapist," Amenadiel said with a bright smile, momentarily taking his eyes off the newborn in the room. 

"I can't help but feel attacked right now," the Prince of Darkness complained, understanding that it was only for a laugh but weirdly enough, not liking the attention he was receiving. 

"It's okay, sweetie. We all love you either way," Chloe took a hold of his hand and softly placed a kiss on the back of it, stroking his knuckles with her thumb. 

"Besides, in this case, it really is true. You guys do make gorgeous babies," Linda started rocking the baby, amazed by how much of Lucifer she could see in him. "I miss when Charlie was this little." 

"Oh, Linda! But look at this little handsome man!" Chloe tried to bounce Charlie lightly one her lap, trying to avoid hitting any of her sore spots. She managed to draw a small smile out of the baby, but it was mainly because of all the funny faces she had pulled. "I can't believe how fast they grow." 

"Yeah, it feels like just yesterday we were coating our entire house in bubble wrap to prepare for him coming out with wings." She smiled nostalgically, taking in the fresh newborn smell from her little nephew. "I'm glad we could take it out, though."

"Yes. I definitely missed seeing the furniture as they were," Amenadiel commented, looking up to stare at his son's wide smile. 

"That's something we still have to do," Chloe added, looking up at the Devil and expecting his agreement. "We wanted to do all the baby proofing before they came but we couldn't."

"It'll be a while still before we need it, though," Lucifer answered Chloe's implicit question, grabbing on to her hand. 

"Honey, they have wings. We have to at least take the chandelier down." Their house was definitely not ready to welcome two winged babies into it. "No one truly knows what to expect, right?" 

"I get that feeling. I spent all my pregnancy worrying about how we'd handle the first half angel baby to ever exist, but then... then he was born, and I guess after that it just made everything flow more easily," Linda touched August's nose very softly as the newly-born baby just stared up at the ceiling, calmly resting in Linda's arms. 

"Linda's right. The only difference we've seen in Charlie so far is that he seems to be growing a bit quicker than other babies, but other than that he's completely fine," Amenadiel added, and both Lucifer and Chloe were so thankful for their advice. Yes, their children had wings and Charlie didn't, but if they were anything like Lucifer, then they would have conscious control over them come a certain age. They would be just fine. 

"Everything will be alright, Chloe. You'll get to know your babies as time goes by and all this freaking out over their wings will pass," Linda's voice had some sort of magic within that instantly made you believe whatever it was she was saying. 

"We're still taking down the chandelier, though." They all cracked a laugh, startling the baby just a little. Nothing a little bit of bouncing and rocking from an experienced mother wouldn't fix. "Actually, speaking of wings, why don't you go check if everything's alright by the nursery?" Chloe spoke to the devil, remembering that the poor nurses taking care of their daughter knew nothing about divinity. 

"Darling, it's alright. They have to have conscious control over their bodies to get their wings out, and the fact that they have to wear a diaper because they don't have control over their sphincters makes me certain that they can't get them out on their own yet," Lucifer lovingly pushed a lock of hair out of his detective's face, smiling softly at her. "She'll be back in around fifteen minutes," he said, checking his watch. 

"But what if one of the nurses accidentally presses that spot on her back?" Chloe wondered, suddenly afraid that they might not be able to keep the secret of divinity to themselves. "I did it, what’s keeping them from doing it, too?"

"Actually, brother, I think you should listen to her," Amenadiel interceded, looking up from his nephew. "Humans have a hard time handling the divine, I... If she were to unfurl her wings... Father only knows what would happen." 

"You'll never quit being such a buzz kill, will you?" In spite of his words, he wasn't actually mad. What they were saying made sense, and if they could avoid the celestial debacle there would be if the little girl got her wings out, then everyone would win. "All right, I'll go check on her," he leaned over the bed Chloe was laying on and pressed a brief peck to her lips. 

"I'll tag along. We're lacking some brother on brother time," said Amenadiel, to which Chloe and Linda cracked a laugh. It was amazing to think of how far they had come in only three years. "Besides, I want to meet my niece."

"You'll meet her soon enough. Maybe I'll get to bring her back here," said Lucifer, checking that both of his hospital wristbands were still in place. A nurse had put them on him completely against his will and under the threat that he wouldn't be able to pick his babies up from the nursery without them.

"Can you bring her here if they're done with the test? I miss my baby girl," Chloe said, briefly taking her attention off Charlie. 

"Sure, darling," and with that, the Devil and the eldest of all angels left the recovery room Chloe was in, walking towards the nursery. 

"Actually, Lucifer, I wanted to talk to you," Lucifer heard Amenadiel's voice as he respectfully nodded to a nurse he remembered. Apart from the fact that they were all taken by him, they were being really nice. 

"I've noticed. You look as if you had a thousand ants inside your underwear from how shifty you've been." And it was the truth, Amenadiel had been fidgety, letting Lucifer know something wasn't right. "What is it, brother? I'm sure it's not just the joy you've gotten from becoming an uncle."

"I've... I don't know how to say this, but have you heard anything from our other siblings?" Amenadiel asked tentatively, following Lucifer's lead. 

"As in, if any of those brats we have for siblings have prayed something my way? Impossible, brother. The last one I heard from was you and it was far before you took the stick out of your arse and realized Dad has been a real dick," Lucifer said swiftly, not understanding why Amenadiel would think of such a thing. 

"I just..." Amenadiel sighed, trying to break the news to his younger brother as smoothly as possible. "Yesterday I got a feeling... You know how we can feel each other whenever we're in the same plane of existence?" 

"Need I remind you, Amenadiel, that all connection I once had with our siblings was completely shredded the moment Dad kicked me out?" Lucifer was still kind of bitter about that. While they were still able to pray to each other, the only one that had ever done so had been Azrael, and only once ever since he was kicked out of Heaven. However, while they could still pray to him and he could pray back, he had lost the kind of connection that told them whenever a sibling of his was around. 

"Yes. I suppose I didn't think of that," Amenadiel voiced, feeling kind of sorry for his brother. 

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. What are you thinking? Where are you going with this?" Lucifer pushed his bitterness aside, taking long strides through the hospital's hallways. 

"Yesterday I... A sibling of ours has come to Earth, brother," Amenadiel said with worry in his voice, but Lucifer had been expecting it. 

"What do you want us to do about that? The minions have to follow Dad's rules," Lucifer was a little bit skeptical, thinking that Amenadiel's worry wasn’t worth his time. Their siblings came and went constantly to Earth. It used to be Amenadiel's duty, then it switched over to Ansel, and now that both of them were unavailable, the truth was neither of them knew which sibling was tasked with coming down to Earth to live up to their father's will. "Who is it?"

"That's the problem, brother. I can't tell," Amenadiel sighed, keeping up with the Devil's pace. "I may be getting a little bit rusty since I gave up on my duties as a soldier of God,"

"I still don't see it as a problem. Maybe it's Rae-Rae that's come to pick up another human soul," Lucifer suggested, failing to see the issue. 

"I'm positive it isn't Azrael. She's on Earth so much you learn how to not perceive her," Lucifer was getting concerned that Amenadiel was so concerned about the topic. When the eldest of all angels has a gut feeling, it’s best to listen to it. "Don't you think it's a little bit eerie that the day your children are born I feel the presence of a sibling for the first time in months? I felt it last when Ansel was around, and apart from Rae-Rae there hasn't been anyone else in the last couple of months."

"You have a point there, brother." If a sibling was on Earth to engage in something even mildly related to Lucifer, then he could be sure they didn't come in peace. "If one of our dear siblings is around... I'm afraid I'm pretty certain they don't come bearing gifts for their nephews and niece. We'll have to be careful," Amenadiel nodded at Lucifer's words, trying to think of a reason why such a coincidence would happen, but coming up empty. 

They continued on towards the nursery, both lost in thoughts about the issue. Maybe it was just God's new emissary, but looking more into it once Chloe and the babies were home wouldn't hurt. 

"Hello," Lucifer greeted the receptionist with his characteristic tone. "I was wondering if Claire Mornings–" and just when he was about to voice his question, he noticed something eerie. The woman at the front desk was looking at him with adoration; green eyes shining brightly under the hospital's lighting. However, the Devil was quick to recognize that such adoration and devotion wasn't of the same kind as the one he caused in women and many men. "What the–"

"Excuse me, Miss–" Amenadiel tried to help her out of her trance, but it was to no avail. She didn't even seem to be looking at them. It was as if she had gotten lost in something wonderful right behind the two angels. "Something isn’t right."

"Indeed," Lucifer agreed, turning around to face the double doors that lead into the nursery. Now that he was paying more attention to his surroundings, all of the humans around seemed to be frozen in time, contemplating something wonderful that was no longer present. 

Upon entering the nursery, everyone they encountered was in that exact same state of trance, as if something had been so gorgeous and breathtaking that it left them paralyzed. It reminded the pair of brothers of when humans were faced with a pair of wings, something so majestic and divine that it rendered them speechless. However, while the expression on their faces resembled that of a human who just saw something divine, both Amenadiel and Lucifer could tell it wasn't all that there was to the story. 

"Do you think...?" Amenadiel tried to voice his question, being slightly taken aback by the number of babies crying inside the room with no one moving to take a look at them.

Lucifer was quick to start roaming the room, looking for his daughter, whose cries he could already identify. He didn't care that everyone was almost frozen in place, he didn't care that there were at least thirty babies crying their lungs out because they didn't have any other way to communicate their needs. Father only knew how long they had been without anyone's attention. 

His blood started to boil and his heart started to beat faster the more he searched, realizing that the unchecked cribs were decreasing in number by the second and he still hadn't found his baby girl. 

The last crib made it into his field of sight, and upon reading the name "Claire Uma Morningstar" printed on it with delicate handwriting, and not finding his baby girl lying in there... it was all he needed to physically feel his heart ache. 

"Luci..." Amenadiel could already grasp what was going on, and worry made it to his face the minute he saw Lucifer turn around from the other side of the room. His normally beautiful and captivating pools of chocolate were now darker and glossier, and the beast within him was pleading to be let out, to crawl its way out of him and track down the scum bag that had taken his little one from him. "Luci, I'm so sorry I didn't—"

"We're going to find her." The Devil stated through gritted teeth, unable to keep his eyes from displaying a small fraction of the beast he could turn into. Just picturing the image of his little baby girl in someone else's arms, someone who wasn't himself, Chloe, or any of their loved ones– It made his blood boil so hot it could turn into vapor. "And whoever took her from me... Oh, brother. They're going to regret their actions."

"Are you sure she isn't in here?" Amenadiel questioned, wanting to avoid dealing with the beast within his little brother. 

"She isn't, Amenadiel." He stated, growing angrier and more worried by the minute, almost exponentially. "Don't you see? Empty!" And, with a wave of newly-found hatred towards the despicable being who had taken his daughter away from him, he knocked down the crib where the little girl was supposed to be, letting it hit the wall and leave an awful dent into it. "Oh, they're going to hear me, brother. They will not get away with this."

Lucifer made his way through the mess of crying babies, not sparing a single thought to them as he walked towards the door. The only goal in his mind was getting to the bottom of it, getting to hold his baby girl in his arms and never let her go again. 

"Why don't we—" and just as Amenadiel was about to suggest a course of action, a loud alarm ringed through the entire place, startling the angels and the babies inside the room. If the Devil's thoughts hadn’t been solely focused on finding his daughter, he would have laughed at how a room full of crying babies could have been his own personal Hell once upon a time. "What is that?" Amenadiel questioned, trying to pinpoint the origin of the sound. 

"I don't know, but I need to find my daughter." The pain and overall stress that his voice conveyed was enough to make a grown man cry in sympathy. His body was screaming at him to do something, to satiate its need of holding his youngest urchin. 

"Let's get out of here," and at that, Lucifer agreed silently. 

The pair of brothers made their way out of the nursery, hoping the staff would come back to themselves, otherwise the babies would be in trouble. However, when they first stepped into the hallway, all they found was a trail of frozen humans staring vacantly, looking for something that had once been before their eyes but had vanished.

They made a silent agreement to follow the path of frozen humans, not sparing a conscious thought to their transformed expressions that were somehow both silent and loud and altogether gooey. The expressions on their faces made up for all the things their voices couldn't say. 

The number of still humans increased gradually as they got closer and closer to the main entrance of the labor and delivery ward. As they got closer and closer, the ringing sound got louder and louder, and the more frozen humans they met, the faster they walked. 

It was when they reached the big waiting room surrounded by recovery rooms that both Lucifer and Amenadiel saw something they were hoping they would never see. 

In front of the exit doors of the labor and delivery ward was their sister, a being whose wings they could identify from a mile away. All the humans around them were still as stone, and as the image of his sister rustling with his daughter on her arms dawned on him, his hatred and overall despicable emotions grew exponentially. 

"Well, well, well," he said ironically, letting the venom seep into his voice to warn his opponent. "It seems as though humans have made something that our dear Remi can't get around." 

The alarms that were sounding were the ones that told everyone in the ward that a baby had been taken out of it, triggered by Remiel having tried to pass through the doors without taking off Claire's infant tracker. 

"I was certainly hoping I would not have to see you, brother." As the female angel turned around, her eyes immediately fell on her older brother, the oldest of all angels. The baby girl in her arms was squirming uncomfortably, probably finding the materials of her armor a bit too rough for her freshly-out-of-the-womb skin. "However, it does not surprise me to see Amenadiel here."

"What? You were seriously thinking you'd kidnap my daughter and get away without a fight?" At that, Remiel remained impassive. "Didn't think so."

"Remi, what are you doing? Give the baby back, we've been through this," Amenadiel tried a more soft and overall brotherly approach, understanding that Remiel could just simply be going back to her old ways. 

"No, Amenadiel. We have not been through this," Remiel stated, growing irritated by the little girl's squirms and whines of discomfort, "I allowed you to raise your pathetic excuse of a celestial you have for a son here on Earth because I stay true to my word. Unlike others..." At that, both Amenadiel and Lucifer came close to losing it: Amenadiel feeling insulted by Remiel's words about his son, and Lucifer by her claims of him being dishonest.

"So what now? You couldn't take Amenadiel's child from him so you're bitter and you try to take mine?" Lucifer accused, walking forward slowly and threateningly. His baby girl was on the verge of crying and the beast within him wouldn't stay put for long if it came to defending his children. "You're forgetting another one, by the way," his voice was so poisonous and threatening that it would make the toughest of men wet himself in fright. "Oh, Remi. It's been a while since we last fought. I really want to see how well you handle what Hell has taught me."

Remiel remained impassive, holding the squirmy child tightly, indicating to her brothers that she didn't know how to hold a baby. Her stance was serious and determined. She would be leaving Earth with the child in her arms as it was her father's will. She had never been taught to question, she had never been taught to doubt or hesitate. Otherwise, the angel would have wondered why his father's will only claimed one of the devil's offspring instead of both of them. 

"You really do care about these humans, don't you?" Remiel questioned the Devil, looking at him with repugnance. "These filthy machines of lies and deception, these awful, inferior beings. It seems fitting, actually. Humanity really does suit you, brother.”

"You'll see, lil sis’, these filthy machines of lies and deception are far, and I mean far, better than any you’ll find in the Silver City. And do you know why?" Remiel remained still as a mouse. Her wings were stretched out in the open, telling her brothers she was ready to flee at the first chance she got. "Because, even if they're scum bags, they're how they are because they choose to be, unlike you. Or haven’t you noticed how pathetic you are? That you just follow His rules blindly and have no thoughts of your own?"

"I am only doing our father's will," Remiel growled, growing annoyed at the poor baby girl now crying in her arms. The little thing was small but she held her temper proudly. 

"Oh, Dad's will?" Lucifer said mockingly, his voice growing deeper and more threatening by the minute. "The will of someone who's never been there? The will of someone that doesn't even talk to his own children?"

"I am not meant to question Him." She argued back, ignoring the cries of her niece. 

"I think you'll quite like what I'm about to tell you." The Devil stated, slowly stalking closer to his sister. The cries of his daughter and the alarms going off would have overwhelmed him if he didn't have a bigger purpose in mind. "You want to know what happened to our dear brother Ansel?" Silence. She knew all too well what had happened. "He was condemned to rule Hell for trying to kill an unborn human child. For just one, insignificant human life."

"Our most important rule is to never kill humans. Even you know that and thankfully, follow it," her voice was never doubtful, always monotone and stern. 

"Yes, but want to know more?" Lucifer could feel his monstrous side ripping him from the inside out, begging to be let out. "That same day, Dad talked to one of his children for the very first time. Do you want to know who it was?" Remiel remained unflinching. "It was me, Remiel. He talked to me."

"Those can only be lies. What can we expect from you, the prince of them? Do you really think I will believe  _ you _ ?" she scoffed, believing that she was showing him mercy by letting him continue to speak. But, she would never understand how powerful and deep the parental instinct to protect one’s children ran. How sacrificial a parent could be if their child’s life was at stake. 

"And yet, the most shocking truth, the ace under my sleeve? That child that Ansel tried to kill? Or rather, children? You're holding one of them right now." Remiel chanced a glance down at her niece, who was now crying restlessly and wiggling relentlessly, seeking some sort of comfort. Whatever it was that was going through her head at Lucifer’s statement, she didn’t let it show. She remained as impassive as celestially possible. 

“As I said, brother, I am doing my part to fulfill our father’s wishes, His will. I will not pretend that it saddens me to see you break over such insignificant beings as humans and these... half-human beings, but someone has to do these things. There is an order we angels are tasked to preserve, and having two rouge angels on the loose has definitively tipped the scale towards havoc.” She had always been stubborn, much like her older brothers, but they had never seen her so set on doing something before. Amenadiel had been able to convince her not to rip his son out of Linda’s womb and take him to Heaven. Why was it so hard to convince her of the same thing now?

"Remi, think about it," came Amenadiel's voice from behind, catching the attention of both the angel and the Devil. "If Dad's will were to get all celestial beings to grow up in Heaven, why are you now holding just one baby instead of three?" he tried. He couldn’t fathom how he had been able to convince her just a couple of months before yet now she was being so mind-bogglingly difficult. Something had definitely changed. 

“Oh, do not misunderstand me, Amenadiel. I do plan on taking the two other half-angel beings to the Silver City, eventually. They weren’t meant to exist in the first place, but we must do what is required of us to ensure everyone’s safety.” Remiel responded, completely blind to all the arguments and facts her brothers had shown her, and completely refusing to see logic. 

“Oh, sister. You’ll see... For one, that is not going to happen as long as I’m alive. So you just sit tight and wait for it. And second, there is something else that just doesn’t fit here,” the Devil taunted with his usual, unforgiving, terrifying smirk. “When Ansel came to Earth, he was seeking my children’s inherited abilities, their heavenly gift transferred by me.”

“What is that? The power of lies and deception?” Remiel came close to teasing, yet still not losing her impeccable and unfaltering semblance. 

“No, actually. He was looking for that thing I have that all of you don’t, apart from the looks, of course.” Lucifer came one step closer to his sister, dying to hold his daughter in his arms and be the one to calm her down, to offer her everything in the world so that she would be safe and happy. “He was seeking the essence of the Lightbringer. The powers that set me apart from the rest of you.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. What would he want to do with a power that only lets you light stars?” Amenadiel questioned, finding that there were still some parts of the story that he didn’t quite understand. 

“I suppose it isn’t surprising that you two would underestimate and devalue one of the greatest gifts our father has ever given.” Remiel started, incredulous of how unaware her brothers were of the power Lucifer possessed. “A power so great, something so beautiful... and yet, entirely wasted on you.”

“You think lighting up stars and making one tiny little sword that doesn’t exist anymore work is some awe-inspiring, magnificent gift?” Lucifer questioned her, baffled by her words. “You clearly have no idea of what I went through to get to where I am today. All the torture, all the pain I bore because I questioned Dad on just one, tiny thing. Why am I even wasting my time? You’ll never understand. Just give me my daughter back and fly off through the same door you entered.” 

“So much power wasted on such a useless creature,” Remiel allowed her eyes to rest on her brother before slowly going back to looking at the tiny newborn in her arms. 

“Give me my daughter!” He demanded, letting his eyes flash red with the flames of fire and brimstone, showing his sister just a small fraction of the beast his six-foot-three-inch human frame withheld. 

“I would stop right there, brother,” Remiel threatened her older brother as he made his way towards her with anger and determination. “I have heard that these... creatures can be very fragile. I would not want to accidentally let her fall.”

“Remiel, I swear to...” the name ‘God’ got stuck in his throat. 

“Who? God?” At Lucifer’s lack of a response, Remiel smiled victoriously. “Didn’t think so.”

The angel extended her wings to their full length, signaling to her brothers that it was over. She intended to leave and Lucifer would never see his daughter again. Chloe would never get to see their baby girl grow up and become the woman she was meant to be. August would never have his wombmate to play with him as they aged together. Trixie wouldn’t have the little sister she so desperately longed for. 

Lucifer wouldn’t have his daughter. One of the only four beings that he would sacrifice everything for to keep them safe and happy. She would be lost to him in the Silver City, raised by strangers masquerading as family. Not by him, not by Chloe. 

He couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t fly after Remiel or try to fight her because he knew he would be putting his daughter’s life on the line. She was just a newborn, and although she was tougher than most, she seemed every bit as fragile as the baby from the room next door. He had been rendered completely unarmed, he had been stripped of any possibility he might have had of getting his baby girl back and keeping their family free from threats. He had been defeated. 

Claire would never set foot on Earth again. She would never grow to learn what made her parents the people they were. She would never get to know her brother and sister and be close to them. She would grow up to become a lesser version of all her uncles and aunts, condemned to believing she would never have free will, tied to the rules of a tyrant dressed as a prince. She would turn into everything Lucifer despised about Heaven and the very reason he’d never go back. 

His baby girl would never be back. 

As an inevitable coat of tears covered his dark, chocolate eyes, as the realization that his daughter’s profile as she cried in search for comfort would be the last he would ever see of her, a waft of wind ran through the corridors of the hospital, reaching the trio of siblings just before Remiel’s wings flapped for the first time, and led her up to that place Lucifer so effusively despised. 

It was a peculiar sort of breeze, one that passed through everything solid and ran a chill down every spine it passed through. It was a presence, a sensation of bliss and tranquility. One that was all too well-known and all too foreign at the very same time. It was everything and anything. It transcended their plane of existence, vibrating in a frequency that was very different from everything they knew, and yet very alike. 

And, like in slow motion, this wind materialized, leaving no room for doubt that everyone’s initial suspicion had been right. 

“Let there be light,” were the words He had once said before allowing His favorite son to light up the sun. “Let there be peace,” were the words that came out of His mouth at that moment in time, making Himself visible amongst His children. 

And all too suddenly, everything turned to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think of this!! And I’m sooooo sorry about that cliffhanger (not really haha)!! I gotta keep my readers on the edge of their chairs!
> 
> Lots of love!


	31. Chapter XXXI

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! How are you my beautiful people?? I’m finally delivering chapter 31, and ngl, I’m quite proud of last chapter’s cliffhanger hahah. I promise that was the last one, there’s no more cliffhangers for SGTDE.
> 
> This is the last chapter that actually contributes (heavily, might I add) to the plot, so I could just have left it here but I’ve decided to give y’all some closure in the following two parts. Besides, there’s a little, teensy tiny thing I still want to close, but you’ll have to wait until the epilogue (which will be massive, let me tell you).
> 
> I’ve already started writing the epilogue, so hopefully within next week, all the story will be completed. However, I’m going to be posting with 7-10 days between each chapter as to keep it interesting hahah. I want y’all to have something to read for these 23 days of wait we still have left! Besides, I will be taking a break after finishing this because 1) I start university again and 2) I want to outline and organize all the ideas I have in my head and pick the best one for my next story!
> 
> Without further adieu, I’ll leave you to chapter 31 where A LOT of questions get their answers!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

It felt like everything happened very rapidly, but it also felt very gradual. It was like dream rules, as if they had all experienced the same, vivid nightmare. 

Lucifer vaguely remembered most of what happened. He was aware of the sensations, and the way all of his senses were alert and synchronized, the way they all came into play. It was like slowly piecing a puzzle together. He remembered the fear, the uncertainty, the unbearable pain of knowing that he would never see his baby girl again and that the sound of her cries as she sought comfort would be his last memories of her. He had been submerged in them, drowned by them, and desperation was the only thing his celestial soul was able to convey as he watched his daughter be taken away.

Losing Claire was all that could possibly happen. Of every possible outcome Remiel's visit could have, all of them ended in the angel taking her niece to grow up in Heaven. Lucifer could not think of a single way of avoiding it, of keeping his daughter to himself and her mother, of avoiding having her raised up by strangers that would call themselves her family. Chloe would have to leave the hospital without the little girl that would stir up trouble while she was in her womb with her brother. Lucifer would have to mourn the loss of his little winged-miracle. The little girl they had spent countless nights dreaming about. The little, tiny, close to completely defenseless baby they never knew they needed until she came... she would never be back. 

He was on the verge of crying, not ready to consider what the future would entail and not willing to go on without a piece of him, without his little girl. He was reluctant to let it happen, to assume it would happen. He was completely incapable of envisioning his future without her. His love for her was like a weight crushing his chest. It was so awful knowing he would never see her again and not being able to wrap his head around that knowledge. He would not be moving on, he would never get over this loss. 

However, as the blackness that had settled around them dissipated and colors and shapes danced before his groggy eyes, he suddenly felt certain they would be alright. He couldn’t say how long they had been under the spell, he had been rendered completely helpless, but something about it soothed him. 

In the indiscernible moment where everything and nothingness coexisted, Lucifer felt a sudden wave of peace. 

At first he felt calm and peaceful, like when his fingers grazed his piano keys, or when his hands found their way to Chloe's astonishingly large stomach and his children’s heartbeats lulled him to sleep. It was a sense of peace so immense and brilliant that it completely overtook him, a wave of tranquility that seemed to exude everything that had ever brought him joy. 

That was before he felt the weight of his daughter being settled in his arms. 

As his senses came back to him and he again became aware of time and space, he began to gain control over himself. The first thing that hit him was the fresh smell of a newborn he had learned to love over the last thirty-six hours. Then, he felt the weight of Claire where she was lay against his chest. The realization that his daughter was now in his arms was so overwhelming, his eyes teared up, threatening to spill over. As his chocolate pools opened up to face the light, he caught a glimpse of his daughter's dark and thick hair, and he exhaled a sigh of relief. She was fine. She was with him. 

He was overwhelmed with his relief, gratitude, and disbelief. The tears that earlier on conveyed all his feelings of heartbreak and pain, now bore his relief and his happiness as they streamed down his cheeks, his hands cradling his little bundle of joy closer to his chest. 

"Claire," he whispered her name and his voice betrayed him, revealing how emotional and relieved he was to have her back where she belonged. "Oh my god, you're here," and for once he didn't care who was getting the credit. It didn’t even register because of all the things that could have happened, what he thought to be impossible is what did. 

"What...? What is going on?" The last sense to come back to the Devil was his hearing, and he was so thankful that the sweet voice of his loved one had been the one to bring him back completely. 

"Where are we... Who..." Amenadiel's face got paler the moment he sort of realized what had happened. 

Lucifer really wanted to look up and meet the eyes of the man he knew was standing on the other side of the room. He didn't know what he'd say to him or what he'd do, he didn't know where to begin, but he wanted to. However, the weight of his baby girl, her newborn smell, and the thickness of her hair were the only three things he could focus on as he shushed the little crying angel. The volume of her cries was heartbreaking. 

He finally found it in himself to tear his eyes away from his daughter's dark and thick hair, conscious that as long as the little girl was in his arms, nothing would happen to her. He slowly looked up, focusing his chocolate pools on the perpetrator of their disorientation. A small, playful and yet unsure smirk crawled its way up his face and his dark eyes met those of the man that he had inherited them from.

"Dad..." he mumbled, recognizing the tall, dark frame of the man that had once thrown him out of his home and into his own personal Hell, and who had a couple of millennia later gone there to tell him he was free to be his own man. 

"Father?" Amenadiel's voice was more confused than Lucifer had ever heard it. His brother looked at the seemingly normal man in disbelief. 

"Can somebody, please, tell us what the hell is going on?" Linda's voice came into play as she held her son. The curious little guy was staring at his grandfather with big, round eyes, as if he were in awe of him.

All the eyes in the room fell on the odd one out, the one that hadn't been there, and would most certainly never be invited to family gatherings. Funnily enough, among the two beings that had materialized inside the room, the only one that sparked interest —namely, the one that failed to make everyone feel comfortable— was the dark-skinned, not-dressed-for-the-occasion female. 

"Who is this?" While Linda's question and overall curiosity were genuine, she could perceive that the female visitor that had appeared out of thin air was an angel. However, keeping track of all her many in-laws had proven to be quite a difficult task.

"I am the angel Remiel, thunder of God. How dare you refer to me as 'this'?" Remiel said, feeling insulted as she allowed reality to sink in. Her niece was no longer in her arms, she had failed her task.

"Why is no one talking about the fact that a second ago we were standing in the hall and now we're here?" came Amenadiel's voice as the angel tried to prevent his sister and his partner from fighting. 

At Amenadiel’s words, all eyes turned to the tall, black man standing in front of the window, the light behind him so bright it was difficult to discern his features. Sadly, Lucifer knew him all too well. His visit to Hell just a mere seven months ago had been enough for him to memorize every single feature of his face. 

"Father, what are you doing here?" he forced himself to ask, diverting his attention from his baby girl after he managed to calm down. 

"You have to be joking. How deceptive of you. All of us know very well that our father would never—" and as Remiel turned around to face the man standing in front of the window, her speech froze and her eyes grew round. There was nothing about his semblance that would indicate he was a being not of this world. However, Remiel could sense the power, the presence emanating off of him. "Oh, Father. Almighty. To what do we owe the immense pleasure of being in your presence?" Remiel bowed to God almost immediately, speaking with strong adoration and awe. If she had been completely taken aback by seeing her father for the very first time, she didn't say. Amenadiel, however, remained still as a mouse. Although it was the very first time he laid eyes on his father, he was not certain the man deserved such a display of respect. 

"Stand up right, child. There is no need for you to bow before me," God stated in a very calm, melodic voice. Remiel immediately did as he ordered and stood straight and tall, ready to obey his command.

"I... I don't understand. Father, wha— what are you even doing here?" Amenadiel asked, trying to shake himself out of his trance. 

"How can you be so disrespectful?!" Remiel scolded her older brother. "How can you not know how to behave and treat our Father, the Almighty, with all the respect He deserves?" At the back of the group, Chloe and Linda were completely silent, staring at the man they now knew was God and trying not to freak out about it. 

"The reason for my visit will remain a mystery for you, Remiel," God told His daughter, as His face shifted from neutral to showcase how greatly displeased He was. 

"Whatever the reason might be for your choice, I abide by it." Remiel said, incapable of questioning her father's direct command. 

"How dare you threaten your brothers' offspring? How dare you come here to Earth to try and steal them from your own family?" God questioned, and at that, Remiel had no other choice but to be taken aback. 

"I..." Remiel tried, but God was far too quick. His composed semblance had flown out of the window in the blink of an eye. "I was doing Your will. It is Your will that all celestials shall remain in Heaven with the exception of Lucifer. These... hybrids are celestials, I can smell them," and at that, God actually laughed. 

"My will?" He questioned, giving her a smug grin that uncannily resembled His Lightbringer. "How can you feel so confident about your stance, your words?"

"That is what Ansel said before he... That is what he said to me when I failed to bring Amenadiel's son to Heaven on my last jaunt," Remiel's words were now lacking her usual confidence, indicating to them all how unsure she was about what she was saying. 

"And Ansel was supposed to know what My will was... Why?" God stepped closer to His daughter, not needing a wall behind her back to make her feel cornered. "I know you now know the reason why Ansel is the new ruler of Hell." If it had been any other moment, Lucifer would have laughed at God bragging about His omniscience. 

"And I..." Remiel stuttered, the need to question her father rising up within her like a pot of boiling milk. "I don't understand the reasoning behind his sentence. Humans and celestials are not meant to intermingle, he was only trying to get rid of a problem." 

"How dare you speak of your family that way?!" If hellfire could burn behind God's eyes, they would be neon red. "I know you have a hard time questioning yourselves or me for that matter, but I want you to think about it." God stated, trying to calm down. "Why would Ansel’s words be of any value to you? The only thing you are certain about is that you are not to kill humans under any circumstances. Everything you think you know about me is just a mere construction of your own minds," 

"I..." Remiel hesitated, not knowing what to answer. She had gone after Charlie on a whim, having scented a celestial for the first time in millennia and actually feeling curious about it. However, with the twins, she had been specifically asked to by Ansel. Right before he came to Earth himself, he told her that if something were to happen to him, she should come to Earth when the babies were born to take them up to Heaven to be raised the way they were meant to be. She would have thought about doing it either way, but being told by the angel that made sure God's will was abided on Earth had taken the decision off her shoulders. Or so she thought.

"I do not want to hear it. I know you have been manipulated and that is the only reason why you are not to be tortured in Hell for all of eternity," God forced himself to turn around, aware of how he was growing far too angry. 

"Manipulated? Me?" Came Remiel's voice as her father's words sank in. "Why do you even care about these beings so much? You know just as well as I do that they are a liability."

"Damn, Sister," said Lucifer, unable to keep it in. He was bearing witness as his little sister finally found a way to question what she had been taught. Needless to say, he was shocked to the core. "Congrats on finally questioning our shit-show of a family," a stern look from Amenadiel was all it took for him to shut up and bring his attention back to making sure Claire was okay. 

"Imagine them engaging themselves into sinful activities with other humans. Imagine them reproducing. We cannot have celestial blood living amongst these creatures, it threatens the balance all angels are tasked to maintain!" Remiel lost it, finding the strength within herself to stand up for her beliefs, even if they weren't the best, objectively speaking. 

"You can rest assured nothing of the sort will ever happen. All three infants are completely sterile and have no possible way of reproducing," God eased His daughter's mind, trying to find a way to approach things without making a mess of His attempt at parenthood. "As for you, Remiel, for threatening those of your own kind, you are to be punished." Remiel swallowed hard, visibly showing how threatened she felt. "You are to go back to Heaven and take on the task of greeting every single new soul that arrives there until further notice." 

Both Amenadiel and Lucifer pulled a face, knowing how awful that task was. It was the closest thing to being a receptionist the celestial world had to offer, and all angels knew it was easily the worst task they could be assigned. At least, those methods of punishment weren't as scarring as throwing His children into a pit of fire and brimstone to torture the guilty for all of eternity. Something was something, and maybe God was beginning to learn from His mistakes. 

Remiel, however, wasn't given even a second to protest, to even make a sound. Everyone just blinked and she was no longer there in the room, a haze of heavenly light that quickly dissipated left in the place she had been standing. Chloe and Linda had no idea, but the fact that God was almighty meant that He could do and undo anything and everything in a second, and that included making His children travel through planes of existence without their consent. 

"What... just... happened?" Chloe breathed out, cradling her baby boy closer to her chest and finally noticing the state Lucifer was in and how tightly he was holding onto Claire. She didn't care that she had a boob hanging out of her pajamas, she just wanted to feel safe again. 

"I apologize, My child, but had I not intervened and bad things would have happened to all of you," God apologized, making Chloe's eyes grow big and round. She kind of knew that the man before her was God, but it hadn't quite settled in yet. 

"Thank you, Dad. Just... Thank you." Lucifer swallowed his pride like never before and cradled Claire as close as possible to his chest, glad and relieved that she was safe and back where she belonged. He couldn't tell if he was still crying or not.

"What happened out there? Why did you all appear here out of nowhere?" Linda asked, holding on tighter to her own baby boy out of instinct. 

"When we went to check on Claire, Remiel had frozen all the humans in place and taken the baby away. She was about to leave for The Silver City, but Lucifer and I managed to stop her," Amenadiel explained briefly, walking over to Linda to check on his own son. Seeing how Claire almost got taken away brought back all the feelings he'd felt when Remiel had visited him. 

"She did what?!" Chloe couldn't believe Amenadiel's words, feeling like a piece of her heart was ripped out at just the idea that she could have lost her baby girl. "How... You didn't fight her, did you?" She sort of knew how things had gone down, but she wasn't ready to talk about the big elephant in the room. “Is she okay?”

“She’s perfect, we didn’t fight. It’s all good now,” Lucifer said through yet another sigh of relief, taking a seat beside Chloe and letting her inspect her newborn baby girl. 

“Father, I...” Amenadiel started, finally allowing himself to deal with the fact that his absent father was before his eyes. “What made you... I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, but why did you choose this specific moment to appear?” He managed to ask, taking the Almighty in. 

“I saw all the possible outcomes. I went through each and every single one of them and there was not one where everyone would get to be happy, and least of all, one that actually abided to My will.” God explained, standing with such a presence that it was breathtaking.

“Why... Why did Remiel want to take Claire up to Heaven? Why not come in and take all three babies for that matter?” Linda asked everyone and nobody, still afraid to direct her words towards the Almighty. 

“Remiel has been... manipulated.” God sighed, feeling disappointed in some of His children. “She was made to believe that My will entailed all celestial beings to be in Heaven, and while I don’t disagree, I see that the best thing for all three infants is to remain here, on Earth, with their parents.” Chloe couldn’t bring herself to lift her gaze from her daughter, fearing she’d look away and she’d be gone. 

“How could something like that ever happen?” Lucifer asked, finally finding it within himself to look at his father. “I mean... Remiel is a female version of Amenadiel, she would have never let herself be manipulated by anyone.” 

“I am afraid I made the mistake of making Ansel my emissary when Amenadiel abdicated. By the time I realized the error I had committed, it was too late and consequences were upon all.” God explained, sighing and starting to pace around, slowly trying to get rid of whatever it was that made His presence so big and suffocating. 

“Ansel, he...” Chloe mumbled. “He tried to kill August and Claire when I was only eight weeks pregnant. That can’t be a coincidence,” Chloe stated, looking up briefly. 

“Before he left on his last trip to Earth, Ansel told Remiel that Samael’s child was to be taken to the Silver City immediately after birth, and she believed him.” For having been an absent father for millennia that never explained anything to His children, God was doing a decent job at contextualizing. “Remiel did not question him. After all, she thought she was doing My will.”

“Man, You seriously have trouble communicating, don’t You?” Lucifer was slowly finding his way back to his old self, the one that wasn’t on the verge of breaking down at the prospect of losing his daughter. 

“Samael?” Chloe asked confusedly, looking up to Lucifer. He had never told her about his true origins and his life before the fall. 

“That’s the name I used to go by back when I was in the Silver City. I just... I don’t like it anymore, so please, let’s just...” Chloe got the hint that Lucifer was not ready to have that conversation and, aware there were more important issues at hand, she decided to leave the topic be. 

“What did he want with them?” Chloe swallowed all the superstitions and doubts she had and spoke up, looking at God directly in the eye and forcing herself to forget who He actually was and what He was capable of. “Why did he try to kill them when I was pregnant with them?”

“As of late... Heaven has not been exactly peaceful and paradise-like.” The Almighty sighed, getting Himself ready to open up. “There is a group of angels that have gone rogue. It has not reached the point of war yet, but only because of lack of members. When it comes to potential and ambition, though, they do not lack.”

“It’s kind of making me nostalgic,” Lucifer said, going back to his usual humor. “What, are my siblings trying to throw a Lucifer? Let them know the consequences are definitely not worth it.” 

“They have found a way that they can successfully bestow upon them the ruling of Heaven.” The room sank into a very deep and thick silence. If the celestials in the room had been rendered speechless, the humans had been left completely in shock. If the powers of the universe were to be put on another man’s shoulders, humanity would be the one to suffer the most. “And they have been trying to accomplish that. This is the second time.”

“What does that have to do with any of us? What does that have to do with my children?” Lucifer asked, trying to remain within a reasonable balance of confidence versus humor. 

“I know you have not had the chance to interact much with your brother Ansel, so this might come as a surprise for you.” God directed Himself towards the Devil. “For both of you. Ansel, he... He has never been one to talk much, always remaining quiet and obedient. That was... until he discovered your story, barely centuries after you fell.” Lucifer swallowed a lump in his throat. Hearing his father say so much about them, about Ansel, about his fall, it was certainly dredging some feelings up, ones he was not ready to deal with. 

“I barely ever talked to him. Our age gap was so large there was nothing we had in common. He was still barely a cherub when I...” what came after that had been left unsaid for the sake of his heart. 

“He found manuscripts in the archives that talked about the war and what had gone down. I decided to keep them as a tool that would ensure nothing of the sort would ever happen again, but instead of scaring him off, it inspired him.” God stopped pacing around, sitting down on an armchair in the corner of the room and trying to articulate the story on His mind. All the people in the room were looking at Him expectantly. “You inspired him.”

“I won’t lie. I’m kind of glad that keeping stuff from the war backfired on You,” Lucifer mumbled, still bitter. 

“I should have known better, and I deserve that. However, neither of you are deserving of the consequences that would have fallen upon you had another war been waged.”

“What did Ansel want?” Chloe asked again, growing fidgety and anxious about the whole thing. She was experiencing it from the outside and, needless to say, it was one of the most intense things she had ever gone through. 

“Throughout his eons of research, Ansel came across a lot of information about Sam— Lucifer, and his powers.” God corrected Himself, not wanting to cause Lucifer any more pain. “Among all of it, he found out about The Flaming Sword.”

“Father, that makes zero sense. Lucifer got rid of The Flaming Sword when he sent Mom into another universe. What could Ansel possibly want out of it?” Amenadiel voiced his concerns, growing fidgety and picking his son up into his arms. The knowledge that there had been a threat to all beings, celestial or not, had made his paternal instincts kick in. 

“It was not The Flaming Sword’s legend he was interested in. He was interested in the powers that made an angel able to wield it.” At that, both Amenadiel and Lucifer remained completely silent, taking in what He meant. “Ansel was looking for your powers, Lucifer. For your ability to bring light.”

“Why...” the Devil stuttered. “Why would he even be interested in that? To light up a couple of stars? To shine heavenly light out of his ass? The sword is no longer an option.”

“No, it is not...” God took a deep breath, and although He didn’t need to breathe, He felt how His chest was wanting to close up on Him. “But the Lightbringer is.”

“I... You...” Lucifer had been rendered speechless once again. He just couldn’t understand how so many things could keep popping out of nowhere and threatening to change the course of his life. “What does that even mean?”

“I have not been completely open about this, but—” God started, walking on eggshells. 

“Woah, shocker,” Lucifer said sarcastically, placing Claire horizontally in his arms instead of over his shoulder.

“—the Flaming Sword is not the only heavenly relic that The Lightbringer can light.” God continued, ignoring His son’s outburst. 

“Father, that’s impossible. There are no other relics that can compare to The Flaming Sword,” came Amenadiel’s voice. The angel really had no idea where the conversation was going or what to take from it. 

“Yes, there is. Hidden in plain sight.” God swallowed. “The Heavenly Throne.”

“I... I’m nothing more than a human that happens to know just a tiny bit about the celestial world, but I would assume the Heavenly Throne could only be used by God, right?” Linda said, trying to intervene as the angels in the room allowed the new information to settle in. 

“It is, My child. But as it happens, The Lightbringer can also light it.” God directed Himself to Linda, looking at her with His deep eyes as He spoke. “And if he sits on it, his powers light up the throne and the command of Heaven immediately resides... on him.”

“This’ gotta be a joke,” Lucifer blurted out, trying to comprehend what all of that meant. 

“I am afraid it is not. Ansel... he found out about this. He deduced that if all heavenly relics were to be lighted up by the Lightbringer, then the Heavenly Throne was to be, too.” God allowed His eyes to briefly settle on the infants in the room, going over all three of them and taking them in in just a speck of a second. “That is why he tried to kill your children when Chloe was pregnant, and that is why he manipulated Remiel into bringing one of them up to the Silver City. So he could carry out his plan and take over Heaven with the power of the Lightbringer.”

The room submerged itself into a thick silence once again, as the white-winged angel tried to let all that new information settle in. He knew his Father knew how he was feeling. God was omniscient, He knew everything, even the things His own children didn’t voice. Why would He give the son He knew would betray Him, the power of wielding all the same weapons He could? Why would He even tell him this? Why did Lucifer even care?

“That’s why Remiel said that such power was wasted on someone like you. She must have known about this,” Amenadiel realized, going over the conversation they’d had with their sister just a couple of minutes before. 

“Exactly. Ansel told Remiel this. Remiel and all the other angels that had allied to him.”

“I...” Lucifer said as he looked up at his dad; a knot of words getting stuck on its way out of his throat. “I truly don’t know what You expect me to say,”

“You do not need to say anything.” God was quick to talk, focusing on His former favorite son, who maybe, in a way, still was every bit the angel he had once been. He was just buried beneath an enormous pile of trauma and resentment. “The reason why I told you this is because I know that, come what may, there is not a single part of you that would ever want to go to war over the throne again.”

“How can you be so sure?” Lucifer questioned Him, letting his chocolate pools be the ones that told his story, the ones that wielded all the pain and heartache he’d been put through throughout history and time. “I tried to do it once, what’s keeping me from trying again?”

“Look down at your arms and to your right and you will see all three of your reasons.” God allowed Himself to paint a small smile on His lips as He watched His son look at his family with eyes that openly showed his emotions. “And, were you to need one more, I believe she is with her father, anxiously waiting for her mother, siblings and step-father to come back home.”

“That much is... It’s actually true.” Lucifer allowed himself to confess, exhaling loudly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but my priorities have taken a one-eighty,” his left hand carefully rose up so his left index finger could slide over the bridge of his daughter’s nose as the newborn slowly fell asleep. He had a family now, three girls and one little guy he would do anything for, four beings for whom he’d give up everything. “But more than that, I couldn’t care less about Heaven. You get to keep it all to yourself for all I care. I’ve had enough of it.”

“I know. And for the way that you feel about Heaven and Myself, I apologize.” 

And for the first time, Lucifer’s first reaction wasn’t to stand up and let his father know how much he didn’t need His apologies, or how much he didn’t care for them. For the first time, Lucifer considered taking an apology coming from his Father in another way, looking at it under a different light. For the first time, taking into account all the times Lucifer had imagined his Father apologizing to him over the eons, he considered taking the apology, and feeling at ease with himself. And weirdly enough, that didn’t seem so bad anymore. 

“Thank you,” came Lucifer’s voice, eventually, as the weight of one hundred elephants lifted off of his heart. He felt as if an armor of lead had been torn off, allowing his heart to finally beat the way it should, allowing his blood to purify itself and bring a feeling of ease and tranquility to all the cells of his body and soul. He was bare, and for the first time he wasn’t afraid. “I really appreciate it.”

“I know you do,” God smiled softly, not used to seeing emotions so vividly through His favorite son’s eyes, not used to seeing His favorite son at all. 

Everyone inside the room could feel the weight being lifted off, the way that Lucifer was literally opening himself up to change, to forgiveness. It didn’t seem like it, but he was already so far down his path towards redemption, and, unlike what most people might have thought, it wasn’t redemption to God. It was to himself. He was forgiving himself, he was redeeming for his own sake, not because he felt like he owed it to anyone. He was finally starting to believe he deserved happiness and redemption, and once he is able to take a hold of that, then he will be unstoppable. 

“Well, I... I have a feeling you all didn’t get to meet the newborns the way you should have, so I had better get going.” 

A small gesture from God and Earth started spinning again, letting all the people inside the room go back to hearing the noises and movement outside, reverting the state they had been left in by Remiel and, maybe, going back in time just a little. The Almighty stood up, and with a small but genuine smile, made His way towards the window, where the light from the sun His favorite son had lit up washed upon His dark skin. For the first time in millennia, everything was right. 

“Wait.” Lucifer stopped his father, making him turn around to face him. “Dad, we... I wouldn’t mind if you stayed,” Linda had never smiled so widely before in her life. She was seeing the exact moment the most enigmatic patient she had ever treated blossomed into a beautiful flower, the moment he went from caterpillar to butterfly, the moment he finally allowed himself to leave the past behind and move on. 

“I do not want to intrude,” He said out of politeness, but the tone in Lucifer’s voice and His omniscience both told Him He was more than welcome to stay. They told Him Lucifer meant every single word. 

“You won’t,” the Devil was quick to say, trying to reconcile himself as this person that was able to forgive, trying to see himself as someone that was able to allow his wounds to finally close. “Besides... I think it’s high time you met your grandchildren. All three of them.”

A smile and a nod were all they needed to seal the pact, and as God made His way towards His sons to finally meet His grandchildren, everyone knew everything would just be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me what you thought of it down by the comment section and await the two following parts which are essentially fluff personified!
> 
> Lots of love!


	32. Chapter XXXII

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so, last chapter here. I seriously can't believe my baby is done. These were an honest-to-god wild six months, huh? I've grown to love this community and this fandom sooooo much, and I'm going to miss posting regularly. At least for the month or two months I'm going to not post anything. 
> 
> I'm starting university on Monday and the last thing I want is to start a work and never finish it, so I'm going to take a break, write as much as I possibly can and start posting once I've got a solid base and I know for a fact that the project won't be forgotten. I have so many ideas and things I wanna share with you all! My dreams have been cray-cray lately and that's where I get all my inspiration from hahaha.
> 
> If you haven't already, follow me on IG: @crime_solvingdevil, where I'll be super active (mainly through stories and such but I'll post an edit or two every once in a while) and where I'll be giving little sneak peaks to all my future projects!
> 
> The epilogue, which is truly the last part, will be up a couple of days before S5A aris, so y'all have something to read and carry on with the worst part of the wait.
> 
> I love you all so much! Stay safe and healthy!
> 
> All my love, Rena.
> 
> P.S: Thank you all so much for 30k+ hits and 1k+ kudos!! You truly have no idea how much that means to me!.o0o

"Lucifer?" much like every day of their lives, things were a bit hectic, "Honey, I have to leave and I really want to make sure you can handle everything by yourself!" The last five months had been the best of their lives. Time had sped by so fast it was difficult to keep up, and things only seemed to get better. It felt as if it had been just yesterday that Chloe and the twins were discharged from the hospital and the new family had gone home. They had been welcomed by banners and glitter —all courtesy of the twins’ big sister—, and they had spent the best first night as a family of five, eating take-out dinner and learning about the two little nuggets that had joined the household. 

However, having newborns really made Lucifer aware of how fast time goes by. Counting with immortality, he never thought he’d want time to slow down, but the truth is that, as the days turned into weeks and then months, he found himself missing all the previous stages of his babies. In what felt like the blink of an eye, the newborns had started smiling, trying to imitate the sounds coming from the people around them, and attempting to roll over. Every step towards their development made it increasingly more difficult for Chloe and Lucifer to monitor their movements, and that made them aware that the babies they woke up to every morning weren’t the same ones they had swaddled and put to bed the night before. 

On October 31st, 2020, the twins were 15 pounds at five-months-old. Every rise and fall was filled with excitement and vitality. Each of them had extremely spirited and unique personalities. Both Chloe and Lucifer were smitten, completely gone, for them. Even though they hadn't been planned, the twins brought so much joy into the lives of those around them, no one was left unaffected by their presence. Neither Chloe nor Lucifer could imagine it possible being happier and prouder to be a parent of three beautiful angels. 

They were pretty quick to discover that of the two of them, Claire was the boss. While August would prefer to chill and not make much of a fuss, Claire would scream at the top of her lungs for the slightest of things, whether because she was hungry or because she had a full diaper. She was a big-time daddy's girl, and always wanted to have her father's attention, often physically pushing her brother away. August didn't complain much, though, because he was the biggest mama's boy the world had ever seen, so much so that he would only fall asleep if Chloe sang a lullaby to him. Amidst the chaos and their strong personalities, both babies found common ground and chose to stick to what they deemed as theirs, so more often than not there wasn’t an issue. 

Problems arose when the twins decided to live up to their namesake as the Devil's children, more as a dynamic duo rather than as solo agents of chaos. At barely five months old they were almost crawling —given their not-of-this-world genetics— and had already managed to take down their baby play-pen and stir up trouble when their mother was in the kitchen. They had grabbed the mail that Lucifer had left on the coffee table and practically destroyed it, leaving pieces of crumpled up paper and folders everywhere before Chloe realized what they were up to and went to try and salvage some of it. Trixie and Maze, as trouble-stirrers themselves, were immensely proud of the twins' potential. 

They were still adapting to having two babies that were clearly above average and were moving like squirmy little worms, but both Chloe and Lucifer could say without doubt that they were the happiest they'd ever been. 

"Trixie?" Chloe said as she kept looking for her daughter and fiancé. She needed to leave soon if she wasn’t going to be late, and they were nowhere to be found. 

"In your bathroom!" Chloe heard the voice of her daughter coming from the second floor, so she quickly went upstairs, determined to find them and make sure Lucifer was capable of handling a child and two babies all on his own. 

"What are you doing?" she asked upon entering the master bedroom. "Where is Lucifer? I need to talk to—" and as her eyes settled on the door that led to the master bathroom, one of the widest smiles her face could bear made it to her mouth. "Oh. My. God."

"Again, darling, wrong deity. I might just stop trying to make you not say that altogether, it is not showing results at all," the Devil commented from inside the bathroom, focused on his task. 

Inside the wide master bathroom were Chloe's oldest daughter and her fiancé, doing what could only be interpreted as assembling the latter one's Halloween costume. The not so little girl was sitting on the toilet seat while the Devil did her makeup and turned her into what she had asked for just a couple of weeks before. She already had her hair up in two, very tight boxer braids with what looked like a pound of hair gel, a thing Lucifer had learned to do a couple of months before when hair duty for all minors fell on his shoulders. Lucifer had become such a great father since the twins arrived, he truly had no idea. 

"Why is my daughter's face covered in glue and toilet paper? What are you turning her into? A mummy?" Chloe asked him with a delighted tone to her voice, watching the scene with glee in her eyes. 

"No, Mom. We're doing my face like Maze's. Duh!" Trixie sassed her mother, earning herself a frown on the Devil's side because she moved while he was placing the toilet paper over the wet glue. 

"Yeah, Chloe. Duh!" Lucifer seconded his step-daughter, trying to insure that everything looked perfect before applying the face paint and makeup. 

"How on earth did you even come up with all of this?" Chloe questioned her daughter and fiancé, having been rendered completely unable to wipe the smile off her face. 

"YouTube is truly a fantastic invention. You have no idea of all the things you can find on there. How do you think I learned how to braid hair?" Lucifer said without looking at his soon-to-be wife. Now that she was there, she noticed the faint voice of a beauty-guru talking him through the steps of creating a zombie-like appearance. Of course, he would switch all the green face paint and eyeshadow for grayish and overall darker tones to make Trixie look sort of like Maze would if she wore her demon face more often. 

"You are unbelievable," she said with all the love she could muster, unable to keep from smiling. "You better hope she isn't allergic to glue or you'll be the one to take her to the hospital and tell Dan."

"Oh, not Daniel! How scary! Truly terrifying," Lucifer mocked her, putting some more glue on Trixie's face with one of Chloe's make-up sponges. He had brought all of Chloe's makeup with him, and he was determined to make Trixie look as much demon-like as possible, just as the little urchin had asked. 

"I guess he respects you more, now that you've..." 

Ever since Daniel found out about divinity, he started acting differently around Lucifer and Amenadiel. After the initial fear had worn off and the knowledge of Heaven and Hell’s existence had sunk in, Dan was more curious than anything. He was constantly badgering the divine brothers with questions at every opportunity. Now that seven months had gone by since that day back in the private neighborhood, he was just... oddly respectful. At least to Lucifer. He had always been respectful to Amenadiel. Truth be told, he felt kind of inferior besides them, and knowing that there was a higher power and that a friend of his and his daughter's stepdad were part of it changed things a bit. They would have to sit down and talk about all of that, eventually, but for now things were awesome just the way they were. 

"Babe, are you sure you can handle the twins _and_ Trixie on your own?" Chloe asked, deciding on changing the subject for the sake of everyone there. "Trixie can be intense during trick-or-treating."

"I've ruled Hell for thousands of years, how hard can this be?" Yeah, fatherhood had yet to hit him as hard as it could. 

"Okay, then," Chloe rolled her eyes, smiling softly. "There's freshly pumped milk in the fridge and I've left the diaper bag prepped and ready to go. Please, avoid anything divinity-related and call me if anything happens," she spoke with her best cop voice, exuding the confidence of a woman who knew how to organize and lead groups of people. "Try not to mess too much with the twins' schedule and please, keep them warm. It's fall already and I don't want them to catch a cold."

"Darling, we will be fine, I assure you," Lucifer tried to ease Chloe's mind with his words and tone of voice, briefly looking up at her to give her a reassuring smile. It was the very first time Lucifer was going out on his own with all three kids, and Chloe was unashamed of feeling a bit nervous about it. 

"Should I just reschedule my appointment? Yeah, I think that will be the better option." Chloe quickly fished her phone out of her back pocket and unlocked it, set on rescheduling her appointment. 

"Woah, darling, wait." The devil stood up immediately, momentarily forgetting about the child with half a face covered in toilet paper. "No one is rescheduling anything. You're going to go in there and get the most beautiful wedding dress LA has to offer, okay?" He took off the latex gloves he was wearing — because there was no way in Hell, Heaven, or Earth he would be getting his bare fingers coated with glue— and lovingly stroked his fiancee's cheek, hoping he could ease her mind. 

"It's Halloween, I don't even know why the store is open," Chloe mumbled, allowing herself to be calmed by the touch of her loved one. 

"You are going to go there and pick the most beautiful two wedding dresses there are, regardless of their price, and you're going to come home to your fiancé and your three children, all in perfect condition. I promise." He smiled softly as Chloe placed her left hand on Lucifer's right one, the one that was lovingly stroking her cheek. 

"Please, please, let it be a ball gown. At least one of them!" came Trixie's childish voice from the toilet seat, as she made her best effort not to gesticulate much so the toilet paper wouldn't break on her face. 

"I'm sure you'll look beautiful in whatever dresses you pick," Lucifer spoke again, getting her attention as she smiled widely. Trixie has been insisting she wear a ball gown ever since she found out Lucifer and Chloe would be getting married. "But, just in case, Maze is playing the me's advocate if you want to know what I'd lean towards more."

"Essentially, anything that sparkles a lot, costs a lot of money and has the least amount of fabric possible," Chloe guessed, and she knew in her heart it was an accurate guess when Lucifer smirked teasingly. 

"Oh, you know me so well! Spawn, I'm afraid we have totally different views on what your mother should wear to our wedding," he addressed the child, making her laugh lightly. 

"That's why she has to wear two dresses. One that I like and one that you like," The child argued, having imagined her mother in the most princess-like dress the store had to offer, with a long train and a long veil. "One for the ceremony – the one I pick –, and one you like for the reception."

"How do you even know you'll like the dress if you won't go to the appointment?" Lucifer and Trixie's relationship had evolved so much, and Chloe had loved watching every single second of it.

"Maze will send me pictures, duh." Trixie truly was one of the most interesting and amazing beings Lucifer had got to know during his eons of life, and he was so glad she could count on him just as much as she could her dad. 

"I don't want to see any of it, alright? I want to keep the dresses, plural, a surprise." He swiftly stood back from Chloe's personal bubble, going back to his place at the stool in front of the toilet so he could continue putting toilet paper on Trixie's face. 

"Nerve wracking, isn't it?" Chloe teased as the Devil got back on his daddy-duty. "Having to wait almost a year to see the dresses I choose," she toyed with the diamond ring on her left ring finger, having grown used to the weight of it over the months. She just couldn't believe she was going to get married again. 

"On the contrary, my dear, I believe the build-up is the most exciting part," Lucifer teased back, and the tone of his voice would have had a much stronger charming effect had he been looking at the love of his life and not at her daughter. "Nine months and four weeks exactly of wondering, imagining. Don't you think that's wonderful?"

"It is when the only thing you have to look forward to is seeing the dress I walk down the aisle with." Chloe complained. "Are you seriously not going to tell me anything about the wedding until the day we get married?"

"Nope," the Devil popped the 'P'. "I asked if you trusted my taste and you said yes. This is where you've got to hold on to that trust and believe I will throw the most fantastic wedding Earth has ever seen."

"I do trust you, but still..." Chloe trailed off, only to pick her idea back up almost immediately. "I can't help but have a part of me that fears walking down the aisle with a heavy metal song, surrounded by flames and all of our guests dressed as demons."

"I would love that!" Trixie intervened, jumping a little on the toilet seat and getting a scowl from her step-devil. 

"While that would be one amazing wedding, you can rest assured that everything will remain humanity friendly, darling," Lucifer cracked a small laugh, endeared by the urchin and his partner, his soon-to-be bride. "Do you remember my only requirements for your dress?"

"Yes. As white as it can possibly be. You can make an off-white work but the whiter the better. No ivory, blush or Dad forbid, lavender. As sparkly and luxurious as possible. If it's got diamonds, even better. Got it." She quoted him, mocking his accent a little during the process. 

Lucifer had been organizing their wedding all by himself, keeping everything under wraps to surprise Chloe on their big day, set for August 28th, 2021. While Chloe was positively thrilled, the itch to know what was going on, what awaited her the day she'd walk down the aisle, was eating her alive. She already didn't know what to do with herself and Lucifer had started planning barely two months before. How would she make it through almost ten more months?

"Are you positive you can take Trixie trick or treating and take care of the twins?" she asked one last time, checking her wrist watch to make sure she had enough time before her appointment. The tribe would be joining her for drinks afterwards, and she would allow herself to have a couple of drinks for the first time since she got pregnant. Luckily, Linda was the designated driver. 

"Again, dear. I've got it covered," he smiled her way, hoping she’d be reassured. "Now go out to Rodeo Drive and get yourself the most beautiful dresses you see, and please, don't check the price tag, okay?" Chloe was still uneasy about letting Lucifer spend that much money on their wedding, but then again, he could afford it. Truth be told, it was still a mystery to her how the Devil had gotten so rich, having only lived on earth for eight years. 

"Okay," she agreed, walking a couple of steps towards the toilet to say goodbye to her daughter. "Behave, okay?" Trixie nodded small, smiling widely. "I love you two so much," the detective planted a sweet kiss on the crown of her eldest's head, and a peck on the lips of her beloved before leaving the bathroom, set on going wedding-dress shopping. 

"Oh, bloody hell, we should have put the contact lenses on before we started on all of this!" She heard Lucifer curse from the bathroom on her way to say goodbye to her youngest ones. She quickly made her way back towards the bathroom and poked her head in, completely unable to stop smiling although she was about to reprimand her soon-to-be husband. 

"You are not putting contact lenses on Trixie," she said sternly but with a wide smile still, catching her daughter and Devil's attention almost immediately. 

"Man, you really do hear everything, don't you?" Lucifer said, a bit startled. 

"I do. It comes with being a mom."

"Mommy, please! Maze has the eye on the left side of her face completely white, I wanna look exactly like her!" Trixie begged, pitting her puppy dog eyes on the table and hoping her mother would just give in. 

"No, baby. You've never worn them before, and it's really awful." Chloe tried a softer approach, but Trixie was set on having one white eye. 

"Then how come people wear them all the time?" The child argued, all under the mischievous eyes of the Devil. 

"I said no, Trix, and it's final. You won't be wearing contact lenses." Chloe said sternly. "I'm leaving now. No more crazy shenanigans you two," and they both smiled angelically to her, trying to convince her they wouldn't be doing anything she hadn't given them permission for. Only that, in their minds, they both knew rules were made to be broken. 

"Okay, Mommy," Trixie falsely gave up, making a little bit of a pout before turning back to Lucifer so he could keep doing her makeup. 

Chloe officially left the bathroom then, heading straight to the twins' cribs to place a kiss on each one of their foreheads. It was two in the afternoon, and the little munchkins would be out for a while since they'd last nursed a mere thirty minutes before. She missed them so much when she had to leave them. 

"You two make sure your father and sister don't get into any trouble, alright?" She talked to them, but the five-month-olds were fast asleep. "I love you both so much," and with that she left, nervous and excited about her wedding dresses. Plural. 

"Coast is clear," Lucifer mumbled to his step-daughter once he saw Chloe leave the room. 

"You are going to let me use contacts, right?" Trixie wondered, picking up the little container where the white contacts were stored. 

"Of course, what kind of question is that?" Yeah, he still was trying to understand how responsible parenting worked, but surely putting contacts on a child wouldn't be too hard. People used them all the time. "But, I'm going to teach you how to put them on yourself because there's no way on Earth I'm getting my fingers anywhere near your eyeballs."

"Cool!" The child said with excitement, jumping a little on the toilet seat. 

"Oh dear, what will become of me?"

It was crazy to think of everything that had happened ever since he first said those same seven words to Trixie, back when he first met her. If someone had told him that three years from then he would be about to get married to a woman who gave birth to a set of angelic twins, he would have laughed his ass off. Now, however, that was his life, and he couldn't be more glad of it. 

He could feel the glee run through his veins, alongside his blood. It made him shine, in a way, it made him brighter. Every morning he would wake up and wonder how the day would go, which new experiences awaited him, what new things he would learn. Every day, he fought the worst of the worst while being an amazing parent to three beautiful children, and he truly couldn't believe how his life could ever get better. 

The Lucifer of the past would have laughed hysterically at him. Commitment? A child? Children, plural? And two of them being of his own blood? It kind of still sounded nuts to him, but every morning he was the one to wake up to Chloe leaving a trail of kisses down his spine, he was the one that would get the immense pleasure of staring into her eyes, getting lost in them over and over again. He, out of all people, had been gifted the most precious present life had to offer: falling in love. He could stare at Chloe for hours on end, hear her voice and never grow tired of it, feel her hands on his body, over all the places they had already been, and still find it just as exhilarating and intoxicating as the very first time. 

And from that had come August and Claire. From them, from their story. 

He had become the man he was now because of them, because of Chloe and his little spawns, because of his oldest spawn, too. He had evolved, he had learned to be patient, to respect boundaries, within reason, of course. There was a part of him that would just never grow up. 

He had learned how to forgive. 

His father hadn't been in the picture much since he first met Charlie and the twins, having come over just a scarce two times. However, that was plenty more than what they used to get, so both Lucifer and Amenadiel could only feel thankful. Lucifer, particularly, found that forgiving his father for the mistakes He had made in the past made his heart feel so much more at ease. Forgiveness was wonderful, and he was seriously angry at himself for not having figured it out sooner. 

There were still a lot of things he had left to learn, to discover and rediscover. He had a lot of steps yet to take down his path towards redemption, a lot of rocks to trip and stumble over, a lot of hands to hold onto so he can stand up back again. He was living life as a human for the very first time, and that made him appreciate the advantages he had at his disposal for the first time. Immortality and the ability to travel through planes of existence was something that made eternity a certainty. Not everyone had that.

And yet, he also had four pair of eyes he wanted to see every single day for the rest of his life, he had three little heads that he wanted to be able to guide and be there for, and more importantly, he had the heart of a woman he wanted to captivate every single day, until the end of time. She was the first thing he thought of when waking up, and the last thing on his mind before falling asleep. She was everything to him.

That was the key to a healthy, human life: exploring, but also cherishing everything he'd already discovered.

See, he was happy and eager to see what life had in store for him next, but he was also eager to maintain the stability and the feeling of how right his life was now. And having a family allowed him to do so. 

To both Chloe and Lucifer, their present life was a fairytale they wouldn't have believed in if they had been told about it when they first met. The whack job of a club owner falling for granny panties Decker? What were the chances? She would have never believed she was an actual, honest-to-God miracle that would fall head over heels in love with the actual, honest-to-God Devil. He never would have believed he would even fall in love at all, let alone have two beautiful children with the best woman who had set foot on earth. And yet, there they were, about to get married. 

A new chapter of their lives was about to begin, one filled with uncertainties and constants, with fear and excitement, with love. What more could they ask for from life? 

Life was great, awesome really, and as unpredictable as it was, Lucifer couldn't possibly be more happy he finally had one.


	33. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY FUCKING SHIT SEASON 5 JUST HAPPENED. All the shit I had to lose has been appropiately lost, seriously. I loved every single bit of it (except Michael but he's a really strong character/villain for the story so meh), and we got to see so many things deckerstar-wise! How did we manage to live through a year and a half with only 3 deckerstar kisses?? Seriously?? There's so much content now and I'm living for it!
> 
> I know this is She's got the devil's eyes last part, for good this time. I was planning on writing a super long, emotional speech on how much I loved doing this and interacting with you guys, and I did (and still do), but then season 5 happened and I've been left speechless. I'm so thankful for every single one of you, for your comments, kudos, hits! I truly can't believe that as of August 24th, 2020 this fic has almost 35k hits and 1k+ kudos! That is so amazing and for that I will be forever thankful.
> 
> I will start posting something new probably around late september/october. I started Uni last week and I wanna get a hold of my routine and see how viable posting a new story is while also taking 5 subjects (3 of which are math). I hope you guys will be there to see it and support it as much as you did SGTDE.
> 
> Follow me on IG: @crime_solvingdevil where I'm active daily and posting shitty stuff about Lucifer and my life.
> 
> Without nothing but a thank you left to say, I'll leave you to this epilogue that I so absolutely adore!
> 
> All my love, Rena.

_Step._

_Step._

_Breathe, just remember to breathe._

_Step._

"Are you ready, girl?" came Ella's voice from behind her. She was blindfolded, but she could tell she was outside thanks to the warm breeze wafting over her bare shoulders. 

"More than ever. I can't wait to see how everything looks... To see him." She could practically hear Ella’s smile before she felt her tug lightly at the bow at the back of her head, loosening her blindfold. 

Nine months and four weeks had gone by faster than she had anticipated, and in what felt like the blink of an eye, Chloe Jane Decker’s blindfold slipped undone, and she was facing an aisle to walk down. 

The music had a presence of its own, as if it were visibly flying around them. The melody was so beautiful, not overwhelming in the slightest. It was the very well known wedding march played by... a string quartet? Had Lucifer really done that? 

Her two bridesmaids, Linda and Maze —who had reluctantly agreed to wear a golden dress and look feminine for once—, and her maid of honor Ella were blocking her view, but she could already see how beautiful their long, golden dresses were. 

Taking it all in was far more overwhelming than she had anticipated. 

They were at a lake house by the hills, and she was standing on a small pier, about to walk down a crimson colored carpet that led into a wider portion of it, where an array of white chairs had been organized at the sides of the carpet, lined with white rose petals at the sides. She couldn't stop her mouth from hanging wide open at the sight, it was truly breathtaking. The railings of the pier were beautifully decorated with fairy lights, going from the rails themselves, to the poles on all four corners and the beaded brackets, to the ones hanging from the top edges, giving an almost magical look to the place. An arch of white roses was at the end of the aisle, where an officiant of the court stood, ready to join her and Lucifer in marriage. 

Her bridesmaids started to walk, and up went her eyes, meeting the back of her tuxedoed, soon-to-be husband. She had seen him in a tux on multiple occasions, yet seeing him look so formal right then made all the hairs at the back of her neck stand up, and goosebumps raise on her bare arms. 

And then he turned completely, and her blue eyes met those of the man she had so deeply fallen in love with, the man that had given her his everything. Standing there, on the other side of the beautiful red carpet, in all his glory, looking at her as if she had been the one to light up all the stars instead of him. 

She felt satisfaction that she could take his breath away, the way he did to her. She had never seen herself look so beautiful before, and she was immensely proud of her dress choice. It was clear Lucifer noticed from the other side of the pier. 

Her hair was in a low and loose updo, a few loose strands of curled hair carefully placed so it would look more relaxed, even though it had actually taken an hour and a half to arrange. No veil was on her head, per her request, but she did have a gorgeous, beaded arrangement decorating her hairstyle. 

Her dress, however. That was a whole other chapter on itself. 

Her slender body was dressed in a wedding gown that could easily belong to Heaven itself. It had long, spaghetti straps covered in beads that widened into a V-shaped neckline, leading the path for an all beaded, low-backed, beautiful bodice. At the waist, a plain, thick over-skirt completed the look, leaving Chloe walk down the aisle feeling as the princess she always wanted to be when she was little. She had fallen too hard for the dress she was wearing, but it wasn't a ball gown originally, so she made the atelier do an over-skirt for the ceremony, so that she could then take it off for the reception. In the end, she always came out winning. 

Breathe in, breathe out, and just like that she made her way down the aisle, hearing all the gasps around them but not focusing on them, focusing only on the man at the end of it. She locked eyes with him, and what words would probably never be able to say, was said through their orbs, through the windows to their souls. 

"You look..." Lucifer mumbled once she reached him, choking on his own gasp, glossy eyes completing the look. "Gorgeous," Chloe smiled nervously, giving him her hands so he could hold them. 

"So do you," she said back as she handed Ella her bouquet of white roses, turning back to look into Lucifer's eyes in search for a trace of anything that wasn't pure love and adoration. Spoiler alert, she didn’t find it. 

"Dearly beloved, we are gathered here tonight to celebrate a marriage. The willing act of two people that choose to commit to one another, to share their lives," the court officiant said when everyone sat back down in their respective chairs. Chloe laughed nervously, Lucifer followed. "Marriage implies sharing lives, from housing, to billing, to love, to children," Lucifer and Chloe couldn't help but look towards the front row on the right, where Penelope Decker was holding their fourteen month old twins, and had an eleven year old Trixie sitting by her side. "It is known that lawful marriage withholds certain rights and requirements the status gives you, do you understand what these entail?"

"Yes," said the devil and the detective at the same time, holding hands as if there was no tomorrow. 

"If you have written your vows, it is time to say them now," the officiant said, smiling softly as he waited for the couple to begin. 

"Detective... Chloe. Where to begin?" he sighed, nervous about voicing the words he had so thoroughly rehearsed. "I met you under the strangest of circumstances, and you... You immediately captivated me. From the very first time it wasn't carnal... mostly, but something else. Something that lay deep within your soul was calling my name, and I wanted to listen to it so badly." Chloe smiled nervously, feeling showered with attention. "All my life, my existence had no other purpose than to carry out someone's will, following orders. At least that's what I thought I ought to do back then... And then I met you, and you turned my world upside down. I began to understand your perspective, I found out some terrifying truths, others that were rather lovely, and somehow, along the way, I fell in love with you. Who would have thought? The devil, in love! You did that to me," another nervous smile on Chloe's side, that quickly copied itself on Lucifer's face. "I was so afraid to let you in, to allow you access to all that there is of me. I loved you so much that I feared that... if you saw all of me, then whatever it was that you felt would just fade away. It was dark, terrifying, and yet... after a few misunderstandings, you came along on the way and stuck around. I'm so glad you did because, thanks to that, we have the life we have today," they briefly looked away to where their twins were sleeping and Trixie was wiping a sole tear out of her eye. "You opened the door to a whole other aspect of life that I thought I'd never find joy in. You showed me that domesticity, vulnerability and love are worth feeling, are worth experiencing, and for that, I'm truly grateful." If Chloe's eyes watered a little, no one had to know, right? "Meeting you was fate. Well, that's actually debatable but let's leave it at that," their close family and friends laughed a little, some not quite understanding as much as others of them did. "Becoming your friend, was a choice. You sparked a flame of hope in me, something no one had ever been able to do. But... yet falling in love with you? Falling in love with you was completely out of my control. And you have no idea how immensely happy that makes me, because loving you gave me a family. Our gorgeous twins and your little lady that I love just as much as if she were my own," Lucifer reached up with his right hand and lovingly stroked Chloe's cheek, smiling sweetly at her. "I love you, and I promise you now that I will do so until the end of time," and with that he closed his vows, having gotten teary-eyed himself. He just couldn't believe his life, his luck. He couldn't believe that the woman in front of him was about to become his wife. 

"Lucifer..." Chloe let his name out, partially a gasp, partially a whisper. "Falling in love with you was like taking a ride on the most dangerous, twisted and merciless rollercoaster mankind has ever invented, except that this one goes on indefinitely," she liked her analogies, she would be most definitely sticking to them. "Ever since I met you, you've taken me for the weirdest, most incredible and interesting ride. You are what brought spark to my life, what made me realize the importance of the day-to-day, of having a purpose, something to fight for." Lucifer cracked a laugh at that, seeing as he was immortal. "And I know why you're laughing, but let me tell you, it's true. You brought up so much in me, so much I had that I didn't even realize was there... The very first time we met you told me how my instincts were, and I quote, 'notable'. You encouraged me to trust myself. No one had ever done that before you... At least... no one but my dad. I hadn't heard words of encouragement in a very long time. You helped me bloom into the woman I am now," she softly caressed Lucifer's knuckles with her thumb, looking straight into his eyes as she spoke. "We've been through a lot of highs, a lot of lows, a lot of moments where everything felt like it was turned upside down. And yet... even though life itself is that way, living it with you makes it so much better," his chocolate pools were dripping with emotion, coated with a thick layer of yet to be shed tears of utter happiness. "The one thing I want to promise you tonight, aside from spending the rest of my life with you, is my trust. I know how much you value that, and I'm so sorry I've broken it in the past. Now you can trust... I'm handing you my heart on a silver plate. Actually, I did that a long, long time ago, but now I tell you so in front of everyone we love, and everyone who loves us back." Lucifer's smile couldn't have been any wider, his eyes couldn't have possibly been any shinier. "If you had asked me four years ago where I thought I would be by now, the last thing I would have said was 'wedding the devil'. And yet... there's no other place I'd rather be, and not a single soul on this Earth I'd rather spend the rest of my life with."

"I love you," he mumbled, barely inaudible and only for her ears to hear. She was the only thing that mattered. 

"I know falling was the hardest, ugliest thing that has ever happened to you. And I'm so sorry you had to live your life that way. But I'm thankful, because if you hadn't fallen, I wouldn't have met you. If you hadn't fallen, if we hadn't been through what we went through, we wouldn't have the family we do now." Lucifer's first tear broke through the barrier of his eyelids, stroking down his cheek. If he had to fall again just to spend one more second in that moment, he'd do it a thousand times without hesitation. "If you hadn’t fallen, I wouldn’t have fallen for you. I love you, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you."

"Aim higher, sweetheart. Always higher," he mumbled, clearly meaning that until the end of time, Chloe would be his everything. 

"Chloe Decker, do you take Lucifer Morningstar as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, from this day forward?" The officiant voiced as Chloe offered her left hand to Lucifer, where her engagement ring was anxiously waiting for a wedding band to join. 

"I do," she said loud and proudly, wishing she could frame Lucifer as he slid a golden wedding band on her left ring finger. 

"And you, Lucifer Morningstar, do you take Chloe Decker as your lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, for better or for wo—" and well... Let's say patience was a virtue the devil hadn't learnt how to master just yet. 

"Yadda, yadda, yadda, until death do us part, yes! I absolutely do," Chloe laughed loudly as she slid Lucifer's wedding ring on his left index finger, sealing their union.

"Okay then," said the officiant, laughing lightly at Lucifer's eagerness. "By the power vested in me by the State of California, I now pronounce you husband and wife." The look in the newlyweds’ eyes was priceless. "You may now kiss to seal the union."

And well, the kiss that followed was one for the books. Lucifer, gentle as always, grabbed his wife by the waist and kissed her with love and tenderness, pouring all the promises that had been said and were to be said into her mouth, and yet at the same time keeping it chaste. Chloe reciprocated in the very same way, promising him a lifetime of happiness, and even more if it were up to her. 

Their foreheads rested against each other for a few seconds after their lips parted, the clapping and cheering around them muffled and drowned out by the mere presence of the one they loved, of their spouse. They took those mere couple of seconds to let everything sink in, to let the weight and meaning of the new rings on their fingers settle inside of them and bring the brightest of smiles to their faces. 

"I love you," Chloe mumbled, only for her devil's ears to hear. 

"And I, you, Chloe," he reciprocated, bringing his hands up to cup her face and peck her lips once more. It would be understating it to say they had a busy night ahead of them. 

The following hour went by in a blur. They walked down the aisle hand-in-hand, the guests throwing rice at them as they laughed and rejoiced that their lives were now joined, despite it having been that way since the moment their children came into existence. Following that, came a small photo shoot for their wedding album that consisted of romantic and silly poses and versions of themselves, being captured by a team of photographers Lucifer had pulled from the sleeve of his tux. That man was no less than the epitome of the word mystery. 

The reception was to be held at the lake house in front of where the ceremony took place. It was a rustic yet elegant mansion with room for over five hundred guests, that had been beautifully decorated in the same scheme the pier had been; white roses, fairy lights and an overall look of a piece of Heaven. Chandeliers hung from the high, wooden ceilings, the tables were decorated with the most beautiful white cloths, detailed in off-white, and the centerpieces had all shades of crimson, beige and gold. Lucifer had truly outdone himself and Chloe couldn't wait to have a second to tell him so. Who knew getting married could be so busy? 

After the promise of seeing each other at the dance floor, Chloe left with her team of stylists to get the overskirt off and change her hairstyle, getting herself ready for the reception. After the overskirt came off, Chloe was left in a figure hugging, beaded dress that went all the way down to the floor, flaring out just a little at the bottom and with no train. She had been looking for something relatively comfortable to spend the rest of the night in, and when she came across that dress, she loved it so much she had to have it for both the ceremony and the reception. However, she really wanted to please Trixie's vision of her wedding dress, and that was how she ended up wearing it with an overskirt to the ceremony. 

Her hair was allowed to break free from the loose and low updo it had been in, letting it fall in nice, long waves over her shoulders and back ,and being kept out of her face by the same appliqué she wore for the ceremony. She just loved the look so much she wanted to change it as little as possible for the reception. 

That was how Lucifer met her once again, with loose hair and a long, figure-hugging, beaded dress that did wonders to her body, outside the door to where all of their guests and even more people were waiting for them. 

"I know everything looks good on you, but woah, darling," the devil said as his wife approached, immediately grabbing her by the hand and taking her in. She was so gorgeous and he was so in love, just as much as the very first time he saw her. "This look is competing against your best one yet, which is naked, so that's saying something."

"See? I told you I didn't need two dresses," Chloe said, trying to elude the compliments because, after all these years of knowing him, she still blushed furiously whenever she heard them. "I can't believe how beautiful all of this is. You have outdone yourself," she said, complimenting all the things of the wedding she had already seen, and all the other ones that were waiting for her just behind the door. 

"And you'll be proud to know I didn't call in any favors. It seems that when LA's hottest playboy and Penelope Decker's daughter are getting married, everyone is interested enough," he slowly pulled away from her personal space, letting her grab onto his arm as they got ready to make their big entrance. 

"It's amazing how we haven't heard anything from the press yet," Chloe allowed her stylists to accommodate her hair a little bit more, spraying on some more hairspray. 

"Oh, that's because they're all locked outside by a huge security team I had to hire," Lucifer said nonchalantly, also allowing his team of stylists to get his hair and suit in order. What could he say? The devil was really in the details. "They're waiting for anyone to make a statement or say anything but I specifically asked everyone to keep their mouths shut."

"Thank you, honey," Chloe really appreciated that. The last thing she needed was the press getting all over them and sharing pictures of them online. They had managed to keep the faces of their kids out of the internet for more than a year, and they were really hoping the wedding wouldn't jinx all of that effort. "It's funny because you've kept everything about this wedding a secret from me, and the thing I'm scared about the most is the song you picked for our first dance. Please, promise me we're not stepping in there to dance to 'I'm sexy and I know it' or anything like that," Lucifer cracked a loud laugh at Chloe's words, loving how trusting yet unsure they were. 

"I solemnly promise we're not walking in there to make a fool out of ourselves," he promised, and somehow, Chloe could breathe a little bit easier. "Now, are you ready, wife?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, husband," and with a small nod on the devil's side, the double doors before them opened up to show all of their guests clapping and cheering their way, congratulating them on their nuptials. 

They walked to the dance floor hand-in-hand, smiling and waving at all the people that were there to support them and make them feel loved. They weren't necessarily all family and friends, Lucifer had a lot of acquaintances that had received their wedding invitation —only to the reception, of course—, but the clapping and cheering did make them feel happy and loved. 

"Ms. Decker," said Lucifer once they made it into the dance floor, offering Chloe his hand so they could get into a dancing position. Chloe took it gladly, walking around him much like that time he had thrown a private prom for her, and meeting him in the middle. "My mistake. Mrs. Morningstar, may I have this dance?" Chloe chuckled lightly, nodding and letting all the love and adoration she felt towards him be displayed through her piercing blue eyes. 

"You may, Mr. Morningstar," she answered, nodding slightly and putting on a smile so bright it could compete against the brightest of stars. 

"Lovely," and as the single word left the devil's mouth, the melody of a song they both knew all too well started playing through the lake house's sound system. 

"Oh, no you didn't," Chloe said as the first notes of the song made their way to her ears, bringing her back to a moment of their relationship where everything was uncertain except for that particular second. 

"Oh, yes I did," as Yazoo's Only You began playing, the devil grabbed his wife by the waist and began slow dancing to the song, much like they had done almost three years before. 

"I can't believe you did this, Lucifer," Chloe was astonished because every single thing about that moment brought her back to them dancing at Lux. Lucifer had gotten that moment so detailed that tiny golden confetti started falling on them, so precise that the only thing that didn't match with the first time was their outfits. She was at a loss for words, to say the least. 

"Well, darling, you know how much I like to revive our greatest hits every once in a while," he said as he swayed them side-to-side to the rhythm of the song, taking in the moment and savoring it. "Quintessential Deckerstar."

"Thank you," she said, having been rendered completely speechless by the level of detail the devil had put into their wedding. "Thank you so much."

"You have nothing to thank me for, Detective Morningstar," he whispered to her ear, bringing her closer at times, and at other times pushing her away to do some twirls and let her beautiful dress sparkle under the lights. "I actually quite love the sound of that," and at that, Chloe smiled smugly, finally making a decision that had been on her mind for quite some time now. 

"I know you do," she complied, resting her head on his shoulder as they swayed to the music and forgot about the five hundred people around them. "But I think Lieutenant Morningstar sounds even better."

"You're joking," the devil had been completely taken aback, pulling away slightly so he could look at his wife's face while they had that conversation. 

About two months before, Chloe had been offered the position of Lieutenant at the precinct they worked in, granted she passed the exam, of course. She had been going back and forth on the matter, not knowing if she should take it or not, balancing the pros and cons and ultimately trying to make a reasonable decision that would make her happy and would do her family some good. Lucifer, of course, was the first one to encourage her to take it, but she had been so hesitant before. Now, looking at the eyes of her husband, she knew what the right step to take was. 

"I'm not," she responded, looking straight into his eyes as the news sunk in. "I mean, the pros outweigh the cons."

"You little minx. You did have surprises under your sleeve. I thought tonight was about me surprising you," it was so cute seeing him flustered a bit. 

"Well, you know me. Tell me I can't do something and that's exactly the first thing I'll do," she allowed him to take the lead on the dance, letting herself be carried away by the music, their conversation, and his strong arms. "I just... The pay grade is a lot higher, and it's safer. I know how much that means to you, and it also means a lot to me. It's a boring desk job, yes, but my family is worth it." 

"I have never loved you as much as I do now, in the entirety of the four years I've known you," his voice was so genuine and soft. Chloe could swear she would melt if he continued in the same vein. 

"We'll see about that, honey," if he only knew what she had in store for him, precisely, underneath that little white dress. 

They twirled around and danced to their song completely in silence for a couple of seconds, just enjoying the way their bodies knew how to communicate without language, without words. It didn't need to be sexual, either, it was just the presence and tone of each other's body that was enough for them to know how they were feeling about everything. 

"Would you look at that," they resumed their vocal communication when Lucifer's eyes fell upon their almost fifteen-month-old twins. The little urchins were dancing to the music in their own way, dressed beautifully in a puffy white dress and a mini tuxedo respectively. "They have their dada's moves."

"That's for sure. If they had mine they would've stepped on each other's toes already," Chloe looked at them and smiled brightly, proud of her youngest babies. Trixie was beside them, looking at the newlyweds with shiny eyes and a big smile. 

"I never thought I'd say this, but I really wouldn't be mad if we had another," and yeah, that was a conversation they kind of already had in the past. 

The moment the twins started growing and became more independent, Lucifer started missing their previous stages, and his whining about wanting them to stay little forever and eventually wanting to have another baby came to be around the time they turned a year old. He truly never thought he'd want kids, let alone more than two, but marriage and dad life had really changed him. 

"I know you wouldn't," Chloe mumbled, smiling softly as she looked at her babies. Truth be told, she missed having them be little and fragile. They had grown up so quickly. "You love them so much. I couldn't have asked for a better father for them."

"I love you," he said, completely out of breath from how in love he was with his wife. 

"I love you, too." It couldn’t be repeated enough.

And right then, as they danced to their song and stared at their little babies, the thought that had been bugging Chloe for the past couple of days didn't seem so crazy and distant anymore. 

"You have no idea of the surprise I have in store for you," she said to her husband, speaking right at the height of his ear. 

"Oh, does it involve our wedding night?" He said suggestively. Of course, sex would always be a subject of interest for the devil. Chloe couldn't be more glad that her sex life would never be boring ever again. 

"Well, then I have two surprises for you instead of one," she teased, pulling away and coming back to him in one swift move, all to the rhythm of their song. "But you gotta look for them."

"My my, consider me interested." He twirled her around. "What do you have in mind? A game of hot and cold, perhaps?" He suggested, letting his body show how excited he was about her surprises. Chloe understood his body language so well. 

"Well, go ahead then," she gave him the invitation to allow his hands to roam over her body, keeping it as PG as humanly possible since they were still dancing their first dance. 

His hands were on the starting point: her waist, and he was ready to begin any second now. 

"Warm-ish," she mumbled, and the devil swiftly and gracefully allowed his hands to roam in search of his grand prize. He moved them down, towards the butt his wife had he so absolutely loved. "Oh, colder," at the clue that he was heading the wrong way, he moved his hands upwards through his wife's sides, letting them reach her waist and with intent of going up higher. "Slightly warmer," he twirled her around with one swift motion, leaving his wife with her back to his chest as they kept on swaying to the tune of their song. His hands crawled upwards to her ribcage, aiming for her breasts. "Getting colder there," and so they went down. He was confused, to say the least. The innuendo had definitely sounded sexual, and while he found the entirety of Chloe's body sexy, he'd gone over the two sexiest parts and so far his search had come up zilch. Guess he would just have to stick to the rules of the game and bring his hands back to where it had been warmer. "Oh, warm there," Chloe said as he placed his hands back on her waist, still dancing chest to back. 

Chloe looked up at her husband and gave him one of her biggest, brightest smiles, which was reciprocated by a look of disbelief. When they said their bodies had a language of their own, they meant it. 

Lucifer's hands carefully, and as if they were scared to touch anything too hot, made their way towards his wife's abdomen, coming to a rest right on top of her belly button. If the game was coming to an end with what Lucifer had in mind, he could be definitely known as the happiest devil alive from then on. 

"Really, really warm," Chloe said, resting her head on his shoulder and letting him put the pieces of her puzzle together. His hands went down south just a little bit more, coming to a rest on top of the place that had given life to the three children that had made his life the wonder it now was. "Hot. Really hot."

"You're kidding. You have to be kidding," he twirled her around and grabbed her by the waist again, all as the song started to come towards its end. "Are you...?" And oh God, he would be so happy if she said yes. 

"I don't know yet," Chloe was quick to say, because it was the truth, she wasn't completely sure. "I haven't had that many periods since I had the twins, but we talked about having another baby, and we stopped using protection and just... it could be, okay?" She explained quite nervously. Truth to be told, she was three days late to her period, but since she was still breastfeeding that could easily mean nothing. She was so desperately hoping it meant she was pregnant, though. "I took a pregnancy test today and there was a really faint line. I don't know what to believe."

"Wha– How late are you?" He asked again, perplexed by the news but so immensely happy. "There was a line?"

"Only three days, and yes. It was so faint. I... let's just... let's wait and see what happens, okay?" She was talking more to herself than to Lucifer right then, forcing herself not to get her hopes up too high. She wanted to have another baby so badly. 

"Oh my god, we're pregnant," Lucifer assumed right away, smiling brightly and picking Chloe up by the waist just as the song came to an end, spinning her around and laughing like the idiots in love they were. "We're going to have another baby." 

"Keep it quiet, we don't know yet!" Chloe scolded him as he spun her around, laughing loudly and letting their voices be drowned out by the cheering and clapping they were receiving. 

"You're not going to change my mind, darling," he finally stopped, placing his wife back on her feet and resting his forehead against hers. "You've made me the happiest devil alive. You know that, right?"

"I love you, silly," she said, and validated her words with the sweetest of kisses. To the outside world it just looked like a kiss from a newlywed couple who had just shared their first dance, and while it was, it also meant so much more. 

Throughout the night the surprises just kept coming. It was overwhelming, to say the least, the number of people they had to greet and the amount of photos that had been taken. It was exhausting but also so, so delightful. 

Dinner came around and all those who were important to them gave a toast for the newlyweds. It ranged from Amenadiel trying to tell stories from Heaven and Hell and making them suitable for mankind, to Linda talking about how far Lucifer had come, to Ella talking about all her predictions of when Chloe and Lucifer were going to bang. It also had a bit of Maze trying to talk nicely about them, which was something Lucifer would hold over her until the end of time, and a bit of Dan, who surprisingly gave the best speech of them all. 

God had come to the wedding, but He knew all too well that a speech on His side would make things far too uncomfortable for everyone, so He settled to being a mere guest, watching from the distance and interacting with His grandchildren every once in a while. He was so proud of His Lightbringer, so happy for him.

They had the greatest time in the world, celebrating what was only the beginning of a very long and very happy life together for the Morningstars. They danced, and drank and ate, but more than anything they spent time with the people they loved, and that was just priceless. 

However, a moment came when Lucifer deemed it appropriate to deliver Chloe's last surprise. A wedding gift, to put it one way. 

"Wait, wait, where are we going?" Chloe asked when Lucifer grabbed her by the hand and pulled her towards the hall of the lake house, pulling her away from the crowd. "We can't just ditch our own wedding, Lucifer." 

"We're not ditching the wedding, sweetheart. I just have one more wedding present to give you," Lucifer spoke softly as a guard opened the doors to the main hall of the lake house. 

"Another surprise? Darling, don't you think it's been enough?" Chloe looked at her surroundings as if to hammer her point across. 

"Nonsense. Besides, I have a feeling you'll really love this present," Lucifer pulled her out of the room where the reception was happening, leading her towards the door that faced the back. 

"Lucifer, babe, you know I don't like surprises. Can't you just tell me?" She really wanted to know, it was the detective in her. 

"Believe me, it'll be best if I show you. Now, face that door," he ordered her to face the door that led to the back, where the pier and the beautiful decorations from their wedding ceremony should still be up. 

"You're gonna blindfold me again, aren't you?" Chloe could already see it coming, what use was fighting him?

"I promise the next time I blindfold you, the surprise I give you will be just as good as this one, but on a whole other ranking scale," he carefully opened the door and placed both of his hands on top of Chloe's eyes, impairing her vision. 

"You know, I feel bad that I didn't get you anything," Chloe commented as she allowed herself to be guided outside by her husband. God, did she love that word. 

"You have to be joking, Chloe. You say you didn't get me anything?" Said the devil incredulously, so much that Chloe could hear his facial expressions. "You got me one of the best nights of my life. You've become my wife, you've given me three wonderful children, possibly even four. What more could I ask for?"

"I love you. You do know that, right?" She was so in love with him it had become part of her very essence. 

"I do. And I love you just as much. With every fiber of my being."

They started walking forward, reaching the short grass on the patio the lake house had. Chloe could tell more or less where they were based on the feeling under her feet. Walking with heels on solid ground was completely different from walking with heels on grass. 

Soon enough, the feeling underneath the soon-to-be Lieutenant's feet became firm ground once again. She was able to determine the floor was wood because of the noise they made while walking and, while letting herself be guided by her husband, they walked towards the pier they'd had their ceremony on. Or that's what she could make out with the rest of her four senses, at least.

"Okay, so, this is kind of one of your wedding presents, but also not," Lucifer said, coming to a halt at the point where the pier widened. 

"What do you mean?" Chloe asked with her eyes still covered. 

"Let's just say it was my idea, but not my execution, okay? We owe that to someone else," Lucifer looked to his side to see his old man approaching, walking so silently that his steps were completely noiseless. "My dad."

"Oh, so your father had a hand in this? Now I'm even more curious to see what you got me," Chloe said, unaware of the Almighty's presence right behind her. 

"Just see for yourself then," 

And, as Lucifer lowered his hands from his wife's eyes, Chloe's face went through a wide array of expressions and emotions. First and foremost, she made it known she was getting used to the light when she scrunched up her face a couple of times. Secondly, her eyes fell on the figure in the middle of the pier; the silhouette of a man she wanted to say she knew, but couldn't quite put her finger on. Then, as said man turned around to face his visitors, Chloe's face wore all the shades of shock humankind had mastered over its thousands of years of existence. The man she was seeing couldn't possibly be standing right there. 

"I'm sorry I couldn't have him walk you down the aisle as you would have wanted, but at least you get to have him here," she heard her husband's voice as if he were standing feet away. 

"Lucifer, this joke isn't funny," she managed to mumble as her eyes fell again on the man that looked exactly like her father. Exactly like the man that had left her childhood home one day and never came back. The man that was the reason why she was the woman she was now. 

"It's not a joke, my child," spoke God from beside His son, letting a shade of a smile paint His dark lips. 

"Dad?" She asked the living image of John Decker, who was standing there, alive, as if the past nineteen years of his absence had never happened. 

"My little monkey," and as John called her by the name she called her own children in the present day, she just lost it. She walked up to him with strong and sturdy steps, years of unshed tears coating her cheeks as her arms wrapped around his shoulders. 

For many, many years, the only thing she had ever dreamt of was getting a chance to hug her father again, getting a chance to tell him how much she loved him and how grateful she was to him for having been who he was while she grew up. Not believing in the existence of a God, and having had the last bits of faith in her crushed by his death made her believe it would never happen, that she would just never see her dad again. She was beginning to learn, though, that having the devil as her husband and God as her father-in-law would prove otherwise. 

"Is it really you?" She asked incredulously, burying her face in the crook of his neck much like she used to do when she was little. 

"In the flesh, my darling," John hugged her back, trying to keep his own tears from spilling. Being in Heaven for nineteen years, only able to watch over her instead of being there for her, had been just as hard as losing someone while alive. 

"I... I don't understand. H-how...?" She trailed off, unable to voice her questions. 

"Let's just say that your in-laws are quite powerful, my dear," her late father said without breaking their hug. He had been longing to embrace her for almost twenty years, he wouldn't be letting go any time soon. 

"Are you here to stay? Please, I..." Chloe forced herself to turn around, breaking the hug she had longed for for so long to face her husband and the Almighty. 

"I'm afraid not, Chloe. I have broken countless rules just to get you this moment," God spoke, almost as if He had been reading her mind. And He had been, actually. As soon as those words left His mouth, Chloe started thinking about a proverbial clock ticking, measuring the time she and her father had together before he had to return to the Silver City once again. "Fear not, though. You have plenty of time here in the present, and I might as well allow a couple of visits during your lifespan." Yeah, let's just say Chloe was God's favorite daughter-in-law. He kind of had a soft spot for her. 

"Thank you... Both of you," she mumbled, looking at Father and son before turning back to her own father, someone she had been positive she'd never see again. 

"I believe both of you deserve this moment," with that, Lucifer pressed play on a speaker that could have easily appeared out of nowhere, and the song 'I loved her first' started playing through it, giving Chloe and John the daddy-daughter dance they never thought they would have. 

The devil and the Almighty watched from afar as father and daughter found each other once again, as they told each other their stories and as the song was made endless, for that moment in time would always be treasured in both of their minds. They stood there, completely silent as they watched Chloe and John, and as they thought about how good things might have been if both of them had tried to have a relationship like that. 

It had been countless eons, millennia, of Lucifer hating his father and God being disappointed in him. It had been so much time that a human mind would never be able to convey such extension, a time so full of pain and suffering. If anyone had asked either of them back then, they would have never admitted they were suffering, they would have never given in to what they were feeling in their hearts. Now, however, they were so glad that God had taken the first step towards the right direction. 

After coming to terms with the fact that He had been too harsh on His favorite son, back when humanity was a mere concept dancing around in His head, He decided He wanted to make it right. For both of them. He finally felt like they deserved to forgive, like Lucifer deserved to finally forgive himself for all of the pain and guilt he had taken over, all of which had never been his in the first place. That was when Chloe came into play. 

In all honesty, God had never thought of Chloe as Him making His son a girlfriend so he would forgive Him. All He knew when He tasked Amenadiel with blessing Penelope and John Decker was that out of said blessing would come a human that would help His son find his path towards redemption, towards the forgiveness he so deserved. He never purposefully intended for them to fall in love in the process, or for them to have His beautiful grandchildren. Everything that happened after Chloe was born was their own doing, and that was the beauty He saw in their relationship. 

He was proud of him. 

The devil, a being that mankind had built from stories of hate and damnation, a being so vile it terrorized millions upon millions of humans through history and time, had finally started to become his own man. Truth was, he had hated himself so much back when he first fell that nothing mankind said about him could be vile and horrible enough for him to feel satisfied. Now, standing there as he watched his bride dance with her late father, he knew for a fact that he didn't deserve everything he did to himself. He didn't deserve everything he'd done to himself, he didn't deserve taking the blame for all of humanity's sins. He deserved better. 

And he had found his 'better'.

His 'better' had taken the shape of a woman with the biggest heart and the most beautiful soul humankind had ever seen. It had taken the shape of the three children that ran and played in his house and oftentimes drove him and the woman he loved crazy. It had taken the shape of a job that allowed him to place the blame of humanity's sins on the people that deserved to feel it, not himself. 

It had taken the shape of a beautiful baby boy that would arrive months after their wedding to complete their family. 

His 'better' had taken the shape of a future filled with domesticity, love, and unconditionality, of a life filled with ups and downs, with satisfaction, with everything that made a human life worth living. 

He had found a 'better' so great, that when the time for the love of his life to reach her final destination came, he felt safe and confident enough to return to his home. 

"I'm proud of you, Samael," God had said while He watched their creations dancing with each other. 

"I'm proud of myself, too, Dad."


End file.
